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THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS. 
Two CuHita Received 

OCT. 30 1901 

Copyright entry 
CLASS CU- XXc. No. 

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Copyright, 1901, 
By THE M ACM ILL AN COMPANY. 



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J. S. Cushmg & Co. — Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 



BY 



NORMAN HAPGOOD 

AUTHOR OF "ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE MAIM OF THE PEOPLE 
"LITERARY STATESMEN," "DANIEL WEBSTER," "THE 
STAGE IN AMERICA," ETC. 



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• • •"• 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 
1901 

All rights reserved 





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GEORGE WASHINGTON 



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"To be the first man — not the Dictator — not the Sylla, but the 
Washington or the Aristides — the leader in talent and truth — is 
next to the Divinity ! " — Byron. 

" The sobriety, the self-command, the perfect soundness of judg- 
ment, the perfect rectitude of intention, to which the history of 
revolutions furnishes no parallel, or furnishes a parallel in Washing- 
ton alone." — Macaulav. 



NOTE 

References and acknowledgments are made in 
notes throughout the vokime, but it is a pleasure to 
mention here a more general obligation, to Miss Leslie 
Hopkinson, for a multitude of valuable suggestions, 
historical and literary ; and, less personally, to the his- 
torian who has done more for the study of Washington 
than anybody since Sparks, Mr. Worthington C. Ford, 
whose edition of Washington's works I have generally 
used for quotations in preference to the less frankly 
edited older edition. Thanks are also due to Mr. 
Melvil Dewey for his courtesy in enabling me to obtain 
a facsimile of Washington's opinion of his field officers, 
the original of which is in the New York State Library ; 
to the overseers of Harvard University for their per- 
mission to reproduce the portrait of Washington by 
Savage which hangs in Memorial Hall ; and to Mr. W. 
B. Coleman for his kindness in allowing me to print a 
copy of the portrait by Rembrandt Peale which is in 
his possession. 

N. H. 



VII 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Prefatory Note . 
List of Illustrations 



PAGE 

vii 



XI 



I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

Index 



Boyhood 

Woodsman and Diplomat at Twenty-one 

Fighting in the Wilderness 

Braddock's Defeat 

The Virginia Commander . 

A Dozen Years of CaLxM 

The Political Crisis . 

Commander-in-Chief 

The New York Campaign . 

From Trenton to Valley Forge 

Enemies and Friends . 

Monmouth and After . 

Arnold's Treachery and Hamilton's Pique 

Victory 

Cincinnatus of the West . 
First in Peace .... 
Launching the Nation 
The Second Administration 
The End 



I 

'7 
30 
53 
71 
89 
107 
124 

145 
168 

194 

212 

239 
258 

283 
306 

323 
366 

398 
413 



IX 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Portrait of Washington by Savage, i 789-1 790, Frontispiece 
Reproduced by the courtesy of Harvard University. 

PAGE 

Some of the more interesting Passages from Wash- 
ington's Journal of his Journey over the Moun- 
tains, BEGUN Friday, March ii, 1747, Followi?tg page 16 

George Washington, 1772 . . . Facing page 108 

From the painting by C. W. Peale, at Washington and 
Lee University. 

George Washington, 1795 . . . Facing page 208 

From a portrait l)y Rembrandt Peale in the possession of 
W. B. Coleman. 

George Washington, 1796 . . . Facing page 324 

PVom the portrait by Stuart. 

General Washington's Opinion of the Field Officers 

OF THE Revolution alive in 179 i . . . . 338 

A Page from Monroe's "Short Vie\v,''' showing Anno- 
tations BY Washington 386 



XI 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 
CHAPTER I 

BOYHOOD 

" Born upon our soil — of parents also born upon it — never for 
a moment having had sight of the old world — instmcted according 
to the modes of his time, only in the spare, plain, but wholesome 
elementary knowledge which our institutions provide for the children 
of the people — growing up beneath and penetrated by the genuine 
influences of American society — living from infancy to manhood 
and age amidst our expanding, but not luxurious civilization — par- 
taking in our great destiny of labor, our long contest with unre- 
claimed nature and uncivilized man — our agony of glory, the war 
of Independence — our great victory of peace, the formation of the 
Union, and the establishment of the Constitution, — he is all — all 
our own ! Washington is ours.'' — Daniel Webster. 

The foremost man in our history showed his 
greatness not in the even current of life, but in 
his manner of meeting important events. The 
more reality is felt to be above romance, the 
higher will he stand. Goodness is universal 
rather than peculiar, and the greatness of Wash- 
ington had its base in the power to be largely 
and impressively right. His eye received none of 
those phantoms whose unreal but inspiring beauty 
makes the heritage of the poet. Born to lead some 



2 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

of the most difficult movements of history, he saw 
only the things which were, and his life illustrates 
the sublimity that truth and strength may reach 
without beauty or imagination. Of how little 
import is genius, compared with justice; charm, 
compared with humanity; the hues of fancy, com- 
pared with the price of bread ; how far dearer to 
the race is Washington than many a genius 
whose visions have been the joy of millions ! 

The mind into which has once entered an inter- 
est in human welfare feels less need of fiction. 
Washington's appeal has been great to the 
masses, because he was a hero ; not less strong 
to the first minds of all nations, also because he 
was a hero ; but different from the rest. It is to 
the merely clever that he must frequently seem 
dull. Those to whom Washington seems good 
but uninteresting perhaps need an argument that 
goodness and interest are inseparable ; that large 
rightness is, maturely seen, the foremost human 
trait. With this moral justness in Washington 
went courage. When the hidden savages yelled 
in the forest and Braddock's ranks wavered ; when 
the Colonies were in upheaval ; when soldiers mu- 
tinied, officers intrigued, and Congress haggled ; 
when all was darkness, — in such times the silent 
powers emerged, rising always, greater at the end 
of the war than at the beginning, greatest when 
he stood, the centre of the evolving nation, select- 



BOYHOOD 3 

ing and controlling the men who moulded her, — 
quelling faction and avoiding danger, retiring at 
last with the country launched on her strange 
experiment. The childhood of more salient per- 
sonalities is often picturesque. Lincoln the boy, 
with the axe in his hand and a book in his heart ; 
black Dan Webster's large eyes watching for 
images to make thought gorgeous ; Franklin 
trudging through poverty toward knowledge ; — 
to our backward gaze, these children shine w^ith 
omens of the future. Not so George Washington. 
Futile alike are the most industrious inventors 
of myths and the most sentimental interpreters 
of facts ; not until the time for deeds does any 
touch of distinction appear in his history. Cherry 
trees and miracles were invented for a hungry 
public. This poverty might be ascribed to chance 
and to barren witnesses were it not that, for many 
years after Washington became conspicuous in 
action, the accessible expressions of his person- 
ality were so bare that their interest depends 
wholly on his importance. 

He was born at Wakefield, Westmoreland 
County, Virginia, February 2 2d, 1732, lived from 
1735 to 1739 at what is now Mount Vernon, and 
when he was seven years old was taken to an estate 
on the Rappahannock, almost opposite Fredericks- 
burg. The father was one of the prosperous plant- 
ers of Virginia, able to give his children what 



4 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

education the times could offer. His own library 
contained few books, mostly religious. The first 
teacher of George is reputed to have been a con- 
vict, whom his father bought for that purpose.^ 
The boy grew up like an aristocrat, and like a 
pioneer. Virginia planters, on roomy estates, sur- 
rounded by slaves and poor whites, held up their 
heads like nobles ; but the difficulties of farm- 
ing and the neighborhood of savages kept them 
virile. Thackeray had some slight reason for his 
belief that before the establishment of Indepen- 
dence there was no more aristocratic country in 
the world than Virginia. The poor whites had 
their pride also. They could handle a gun, and 
they had none of the peasant's humility. The 
blacks were in bondage, but already many owners 
looked upon slavery as wrong, unprofitable, and 
temporary. There was little to instil respect for 
sloth and divine right. Sons even of the best 
families knew the need of character and effort. 
The Washingtons were not at the head of society, 
but they stood well in it. Two brothers, John 
and Lawrence, of the minor English gentry, im- 
mio^rated to Viro^inia, in the middle of the seven- 
teenth century, with patents for land, and both 
rapidly increased their holdings. Colonel John, 
the great grandfather of George, was sufficiently 
enlightened to lodge a complaint, as soon as he 
landed, with the governor of Virginia, against the 



BOYHOOD 5 

captain of the vessel in which he immigrated as 
mate, for hanging a witch on the voyage. He 
was so fierce a fighter of Indians, against whom 
he commanded the Virginia troops in the War 
of 1675, that the redmen are said to have called 
him " town-destroyer " ; and for his cruelty tow- 
ard the savages he was reprimanded by the 
governor. Washington's maternal ancestors, the 
Balls, who immigrated in 1657, occupied a 
slightly lower stationj and there is a rumor that 
John Ball's second wife, Washington's grand- 
mother, was a housekeeper. 

George's father died when the boy was eleven, 
leaving four children by his first wife and six, of 
wiiom George was the eldest, by his second. The 
estate now called Mount Vernon was left to the 
son Lawrence. If he should die childless, it was 
to go to George, who, besides, at his majority, was to 
receive a few hundred acres. In the meantime he 
lived with his mother, and spent much time with 
Lawrence and the neighboring family of Fairfaxes. 
That his learning was small is not to be attributed 
to scant opportunity, since he never showed much 
hunger for books, and many famous men, who later 
surrounded and obeyed him, won more education 
against greater odds. If he studied Latin, he 
never used or remembered it, nor, in spite of his 
frequent experience through life with the French, 
was he ever able to use their tongue. A story, 



,'>i 



6 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

meagre in worth and plausibility, is handed down, 
that, while other boys played at recess, George 
stood behind the door and ciphered. The early 
literary accomplishment which has become most 
famous is the transcription into his copybook, 
possibly a mere practice in penmanship, of a lot 
of maxims, intelligent, foolish, and pedantic alike, 
without discrimination. 

In mathematics only did he combine zeal with 
aptitude, for the exact and the practical were to 
be the basis of his power. In spelling and gram- 
mar he was inferior. Not only does the thriving 
instinct, as Parton says, grow best without culture, 
but even vigilance, which, natural in him, was fed 
by life in a wilderness, would have flourished less 
in a boy addicted to poetry and letters. A sug- 
gestive letter from one of the Fairfaxes to Lawrence 
says that George has promised to be " steady." 
His taste for bodily labor and adventure was 
doubtless suited by a proposition to send him to 
sea at fourteen. His mother's attitude is indi- 
cated in a letter from Robert Jackson, an intimate 
friend of the family, to Lawrence. " She offers 
several trifling objections, such as fond, unthink- 
ing mothers habitually suggest, and I find that 
one word against his going has more weight than 
ten for it." His baggage is said to have been al- 
ready on board a British ship lying in the harbor, 
when a letter from Mrs. Washington's brother 



BOYHOOD 7 

Joseph, dated London, May 19th, 1746, arrived, 
and turned the scale, with the argument that 
such a career offered nothing to one who, Hke 
George, lacked family influence. 

The following is an extract from Josiah Quincy's 
Journal for 1808 : — 

"November 15. At Congress. Early adjournment. 
In the evening Taggart, Lewis of Virginia, Tallmadge, 
etc., visited us. Lewis said there were no traditions 
circulating in Virginia concerning the youthful period 
of Washington's life of any great interest. He was 
always remarkable for great firmness and thoughtful- 
ness, for love of athletic sports, and for great muscular 
strength, particularly great force of arm. He could 
throw a stone farther than any man in Virginia ; and 
there was a mark on the side of the Natural Bridge, 
with Washington's name on the rock, it being the place 
to which he had, in 1750 or 1760, thrown a stone from 
below, as is the practice with persons visiting that 
wonder of nature. Washington's mark is twenty feet 
higher than any other." 

Washington attended a neighboring school, 
and was taught mathematics by a tutor named 
Williams, but all his schooling ended before he 
was sixteen. Meantime he learned to know 
society at the house of Lawrence, where many of 
the guests were officers, from whom George heard 
abundance of war talk. At the Fairfaxes, also, 
he lived in the atmosphere of the world, with 
some culture added, for Thomas, Lord Fairfax, 



8 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

a misanthropic fox hunter, had been educated 
at Oxford, and had contributed to Addison's 
Spectator. On this lord's domain Washington 
did some of his first surveying, an occupation 
prompted by the demands of the country and by 
his love of mathematics and activity. At sixteen 
he was public surveyor of Culpeper County, and 
thenceforward, to be nearer his work, he lived 
regularly with his brother at Mount Vernon. In 
/f i§4^ I'^G l^ft ^ journal, now in the Department of 
/State at Washington, of one of his surveys for 
Lord Fairfax, which does more to prove precocity 
than do the famous rules of behavior. The six- 
teen-year-old boy notices the beauty of the coun- 
try, but the language is simple, for not even his 
earliest known efforts show the rhetoric which 
usually precedes eloquence in an imaginative mind. 
" We went through most beautiful groves of sugar- 
trees, and spent the last part of the day in admir- 
ing the trees and the richness of the land." And 
certainly few boys of sixteen would tell a story in 
as mature a style as this : — 

"We got our suppers and was lighted into a Room 
& I not being so good a woodsman as ye rest of my 
company, striped myself very orderly and went into 
ye Bed, as they calld it, when to my surprize, I found 
it to be nothing but a little straw matted together with- 
out sheets or any thing else, but only one thread bear 
blanket with double its weight of vermin, such as Lice, 



BOYHOOD 9 

Fleas, &c. I was glad to get up (as soon as ye Light 
was carried from us). I put oil my cloths & lay as my 
companions. Had we not been very tired, I am sure 
we should not have slep'd much that night. I made a 
Promise not to sleep so from that time forward, chusing 
rather to sleep in ye open air before a fire, as will appear 
hereafter. 

'' Wednesday i6th. We set out early & finish'd about 
one o'clock & then Travelled up to Frederick Town, 
where our Baggage came to us. We cleaned ourselves 
(to get Rid of ye Game we had catched ye night before). 
I took a Review of ye Town & then return'd to our 
Lodgings where we had a good Dinner prepared for us. 
Wine & Rum Punch in plenty, & a good Feather Bed 
with clean sheets, which was a very agreeable regale." 

These words point to some physical delicacy, 
in spite of his unusual size and strength, and a 
few days later he records his belief that the road 
was the worst ever trod by man or beast. An 
Indian dance, which he calls comical, he describes 
without humor, but with a sense of the grotesque, 
as he does also a group of poor whites who fol- 
lowed them. Of the dance he says : — 

"Wednesday, 23rd. Raind till about two o'clock & 
cleard, when we were agreeably surprized at ye sight of 
thirty odd Indians coming from war with only one scalp. 
We had some Liquor with Us of which we gave them 
Part, it elevating there spirits, put them in ye humor of 
Dauncing, of whom we had a War Daunce. There 
manner of Dauncing is as follows : They clear a Large 
Circle & make a great Fire in ye middle. Men seats 



lO GEORGE WASHINGTON 

themselves around it. Ye speaker makes a grand 
speech, telHng them in what manner they are to 
daunce. After he has finished ye best Dauncer jumps 
up as one awaked out of a sleep, & Runs & Jumps 
about ye Ring in a most comicle manner. He is fol- 
lowed by ye Rest. Then begins there musicians to 
Play. Ye musick is a Pot half full of water, with a 
Deerskin streched over it as tight as it can & a goard 
with some shott in it to rattle & a Piece of an horse's 
tail tied to it to make it look fine. Ye one keeps rat- 
tling & ye others drumming all ye while ye others is 
Dauncing." 

And of the people : — 

*' Monday, 4th : — This Morning Mr. Fairfax left us 
with intent to go down by ye mouth of ye Branch. We 
did two Lots & was attended by a great Company of 
People, men. Women, & children, that attended us 
through ye woods as we went, shewing there antick 
tricks. I really think they seem to be as ignorant a 
set of people as the Indians. They would never speak 
EngUsh but when spoken to, they speak all Dutch." 

Shooting wild turkeys was the feat most empha- 
sized in the Journal, but dangers and hardships 
existed in profusion. The straw on which Wash- 
ington slept caught fire, and he was saved by the 
chance awakening of a companion. The tent was 
blown away by the wind. A rattlesnake was seen. 
Provisions were exhausted, and hunger was felt. 
When they did eat, every one was his own cook, 
the spits were forked sticks, the plates large chips, 
and " as for dishes we had none." The boy's atti- 



BOYHOOD II 

tude toward this life was doubtless enthusiastic 
when the adventures were in the foreground, but 
at other times, when he sat down to sum up his 
fate, he could write, and either wholly or histrioni- 
cally feel, like this : — 

*' I seem to be in a place where no real satisfaction 
is to be had. Since you received my letter in October 
last, I have not sleep'd above three nights or four 
in a bed, but, after walking a good deal all the day, 
I lay down before the fire upon a little hay, straw, fod- 
der, or bearskin, which ever is to be had, with man, 
wife, and children, like a parcel of dogs and cats ; and 
happy is he, who gets the berth nearest the fire. 
There's nothing would make it pass off tolerably but a 
good reward. A doubloon is my constant gain every 
day that the weather will permit my going out, and 
sometimes six pistoles. The coldness of the weather 
will not allow of my making a long stay, as the lodg- 
ing is rather too cold for the time of year. I have 
never had my clothes off, but lay and sleep in them, 
except the few nights I have lay'n in Frederic Town." 

Woman already existed for the youthful woods- 
man. To this period belong a couple of trib- 
utes to her power in boyish and imitative verse, 
and drafts and copies of letters, in which the 
most famous phrase, the " lowland beauty," has 
produced little but futile guessing. It occurs 
thus : — 

" My place of residence is at present at his lordship's 
where I might, was my heart disengaged, pass my time 
very pleasantly, as there's a very agreeable young lady 



12 GEORGE WASHINGtON 

lives in the same house. But as that's only adding 
fuel to fire, it makes me the more uneasy, for by often 
and unavoidably being in company with her revives my 
former passion for your Lowland Beauty ; whereas, was 
I to live more retired from young women, I might elevi- 
ate in some measure my sorrows by burying that chaste 
and troublesome passion in the grave of oblivion or 
etearnall forgetfulness, for as I am very well assured, 
that's the only antidote or remedy that I ever shall be 
relieved by or only recess that can administer any cure 
or help to me, as I am well convinced, was I ever to 
attempt anything, I should only get a denial which 
would be only adding grief to uneasiness." 

Of his reading, v^e have the notes, under date 
of March 15th, 1748: "Read to the reign of King 
John," and " In the Spectator read to 143," and 
for abstract cogitation this, " Whats the noblest 
Passion of the Mind Qy." A careful memoran- 
dum is made of the clothes carried with him, and 
includes seven waistcoats, four neckcloths, and 
seven caps. The extreme precision of his nature 
appears in this memorandum : " The regulator of 
my watch now is 4m : and over the fifth from the 
slow end." Thus the picture of the boy is dis- 
tinct, although not yet distinguished. The tone 
is clear, honest, didactic, with the inevitable senti- 
ments, but less than the usual sentimentality ; a 
mature, thinking, exact mind, trained by men and 
deeds, sensitive to hardship but becoming inured 
to it, interested in figures, using logarithms in sur- 



BOYHOOD 13 

veying, noting precisely the state of his wardrobe 
and his watch, rejoicing in the doubloon, and 
never going astray after vain imaginings. When 
he did anything, he knew why ; he " never mis- 
took nor misapplied his talents " ; and he became 
ready for any deed which required a sane mind, 
a sound character, and practical experience. 

Several years passed in this life, — society at the 
Fairfaxes, military talk at Mount Vernon, occa- 
sional visits to his mother, and growing familiar- 
ity with surveying, topography, and Indians. He 
writes in May, 1749, that he hopes it will be un- 
necessary for him to go to Williamsburg to see 
his brother, because " My horse is in very poor 
order to undertake such a journey, and is in no 
likelihood of mending, for want of corn sufficient 
to support him." The rich in Virginia, in those 
days, were "land poor." They owned many acres 
and many slaves, and obtained few of the results 
for which land is accumulated and labor em- 
ployed. Two years later, when he was nineteen, 
George was adjutant general (with the rank of 
major) in one of four military districts into which 
Virginia was divided. 

Lawrence, a victim of consumption, sailed for 
the Barbadoes September 28th, 1 75 1, and took with 
him George, who carefully copied, every day, 
the log book, and noted the wind and weather. 
In the West Indies they spent a dull time, no 



14 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

change of seasons, the same prospect, no bracing 
weather, too much relaxation, and "no bodily 
diversions but dancing, which frequently pro- 
duces yellow fever." So wrote Lawrence, but 
George, who was in better health, apparently had 
a happier time. He records dinners and teas, 
and rides in which he was " perfectly enraptured 
with the beautiful prospects, which every side pre- 
sented to our view, — the fields of cane, corn, fruit 
trees, etc., in a delightful green." Board was 
" extravagantly dear." " Fifteen pounds a month 
were his terms, exclusive of liquor and washing, 
which we find." He notes, however, in favor of 
the boarding place, that " the prospect is exten- 
sive by land and pleasant by sea." One of the 
most remarkable entries is this : — 

"15. Was treated with a ticket to see the play of 
George Bamivell acted. The character of Barnwell and 
several others were said to be well performed. There 
was music adapted and regularly conducted." ^ 

As he apparently went, the said to be is an 
early instance of his unwillingness to pass per- 
sonal judgment on matters of which he was igno- 
rant. To a three weeks' attack of the small pox 
he devotes just three lines, although it left him 
marked for life, and on his first day out of the 

1 Mr. Sparks doubtless corrected the style. In general, I have not 
wished to put much stress, in quotation, on these details, giving only 
enough peculiarities of spelling and grammar to show Washington's lack 
of proficiency. 



BOYHOOD 15 

house he went to court to see a wealthy man of 
"infamous character" acquitted, and to record his 
judgment that the witness who turned the scale 
had been suborned. Now, although so young, he 
notes that the governor of the Barbadoes keeps a 
proper state at small expense, avoids the errors of 
his predecessors, gives no handle for complaint, 
but by declining familiarity loses popularity; he 
comments on the formation of the hills, the fruits, 
the quality of the soil, the crops and their value, 
the poorness of the food, amount of debt, hospi- 
tality, manners, number of taverns, longevity, 
taxes, laws, discipline, and fortifications ; all these 
things are concisely noted by the boy of nineteen. 
He returned to Virginia, and Lawrence went to 
Bermuda, failed to improve, and returned home to 
die, at the age of thirty-four. George stayed at 
Mount Vernon, which in a few months became 
his through the death of his niece ; and he acted 
as head of the family. One of his occupations, 
after the return, is shown in a letter written about 
four months after he got back to Virginia, to 
William Fauntleroy, Sr., in Richmond, brother 
of " Miss Betsy." 

" May 20, 1752. 

"Sir: I should have been down long before this, but 
my business in Frederick detained me somewhat longer 
than I expected, and immediately upon my return from 
thence I was taken with a violent pleurise, which has 
reduced me very low ; but purpose, as soon as I recover 



l6 GEORGE VVASHlNGfON 

my strength, to wait on Miss Betsy, in hopes of a revo- 
cation of the former cruel sentence, and see if I can meet 
with any alteration in my favor, I have enclosed a letter 
to her, which should be much obliged to you for the de- 
livery of it. I have nothing to add but my best respects, 
to your good lady and family, and that I am, sir, 

'* Your most ob't humble Serv't. 
" G. Washington." 



Some of the more Interesting Passages from Washington's 

Journal of his Journey over the Mountains, begun 

Friday, March ii, 1747. 



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CHAPTER II 

WOODSMAN AND DIPLOMAT AT TWENTY-ONE 

"The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with 
difficulties. All history will convince you of this, and that wisdom 
and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retire- 
ment and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues. When 
a mind is raised and animated by scenes that engage the heart, 
then those qualities, which would otherwise lie dormant, wake into 
life and form the character of the hero and the statesman." — Mrs. 
John Adams. 

The governor of Virginia, along with the 
other Colonial governors, was instructed by 
Great Britain, in 1753, to serve notice on the 
French that their forts built on western lands 
claimed by the English were an encroachment. 
He was also ordered, if the French resisted, to 
employ force. Looking about for a messenger 
to perform the hazardous mission, a journey 
through five or six hundred miles of forests, — 
an errand requiring diplomacy, courage, experi- 
ence in the woods, tact with savages, and infor- 
mation about forts, — Governor Dinwiddle selected 
a man of twenty-one, whom, in a message to an- 
other governor, he described as " a person of dis- 
tinction." This tall, grave, and handsome youth 
c 17 



l8 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

set out for the Ohio River on the last day of 
October. Arrived the next day at Fredericks- 
burg, he engaged as French interpreter his former 
fencing-master, Jacob Vanbraam, who had also 
served with Captain Lawrence. The Indian 
interpreter was John Davidson. Arrived at 
what is now Cumberland, Major Washington 
engaged as guide Christopher Gist, a trader who 
had made settlements and taken possession for 
the Ohio Company of the country claimed by 
both nations ; and also engaged as aids four other 
men, two of them Indian traders. Heavy rains 
and deep snows made the forests even more than 
commonly difficult ; their progress was slow, and 
they had to borrow a canoe from an Indian trader 
and send two of their men with the baggage down 
the Monongahela to meet the rest of the party at 
the forks of the Ohio. Washington studied these 
forks particularly with reference to situations for 
forts. While looking over the forks and their suit- 
ability to fortification, he called to invite Shingiss, 
" King of the Delawares," to the council that was 
to be held at Logstown, whither they arrived 
twenty-five days after leaving Williamstown. In 
the absence of "the Half-King," a principal chief 
of the allied tribes who owned the land for which 
two white races were contesting, Washington ex- 
plained his errand to another chief, to whom he 
gave a string of wampum and some tobacco, re- 



WOODSMAN AND DIPLOiMAT AT TWENTY-ONE 19 

questing him to send for the Half- King, which 
he promised to do, by runner, in the morning. 
Meantime the young major invited the chief " and 
the other great men" to his tent and talked with 
them. He made what observations he could, and 
the next day received further information from 
some French deserters who passed by. In the 
evening the Half- King arrived. At a private con- 
ference in Washington's tent, the chief, the major, 
and the interpreter were alone. With Indian 
eloquence the chief described the argument he had 
addressed to the French commandant, the gist of 
which was that he had no objection to trading with 
either the French or the English, but that his peo- 
ple would not permit foreigners to build upon the 
land claimed by his people. The commandant had 
answered with contempt, and the Half-King was 
hostile to the French. The next day, at a general 
council, Washington addressed the Indians as his 
friends and allies, told vaguely his mission, and re- 
quested guidance and protection to the French 
headquarters. The Half-King requested a delay 
until he could send for " the French speech-belt," 
which was to be returned to the French as a sign 
that the alliance with them was over, and for certain 
warriors as a guard. Washington answered that 
he must push forward. The chief showed dis- 
pleasure, and Washington, although he was in- 
clined to be imperious with Indians, could not 



20 GEORGE WASHINGflTON 

afford to affront the Half- King. Two days after 
came a question which he had been dreading. 
One of the sachems called at his tent, and after the 
usual solemn Indian preliminaries, asked the na- 
ture of his errand to the French. As this was in- 
formation which the savages could not safely have, 
Washington had prepared answers which should 
say just enough to allay Indian curiosity. Thus 
early was he compelled to study what to reveal 
and what to secrete, and the truth was never a 
fetich with him. 

He was chafing with impatience, but of such 
moment for the impending conflict was the Indian 
good will, that he submitted to further procrasti- 
nation. He had small faith in the honesty of 
savages. When, as one reason for delay, they 
urged the illness of a chief's wife, Washington 
silently saw the real cause in fear of the French. 
Still he endeavored to treat them as brothers and 
allies, although in handling Indians he could 
never rival in adeptness his- French rivals, and 
apparently the first impression of the Half- King, 
like the last, was that Washington did not treat 
Indian chiefs as equals. His nature was com- 
manding, but such experience increased in him 
the combination which John Quincy Adams later 
described as the spirit of command wedded to the 
spirit of meekness. The next day he observed 
another lie; to the elaborate explanation of the Ind- 



WOODSMAN AND DIPLOMAT AT TWENTY-ONE 21 

ians that they sent a small guard of only four so as 
to avoid arousing French suspicion, Washington 
adds his own belief that the chiefs were unable to 
get their hunters in. On the last day of Novem- 
ber, accompanied by Jeskakake, White Thunder, 
the Half-King, and one of their best hunters, the 
party at last set out. On December 4th they found 
the colors of the French hoisted on a house from 
which they had driven John Frazer,an English sub- 
ject. Washington approached and found three offi- 
cers, one of whom. Captain Chalbert de Joncaire, son 
of a French officer and a Seneca squaw, said that 
he had command of the Ohio, but advised Wash- 
ington to apply for his answer to a general officer 
at the neighboring fort. Inviting the English 
party to sup, he treated them with French courtesy, 
until conviviality got the better of discretion. 

" The Wine, as they dosed themselves pretty plenti- 
fully with it, soon banished the Restraint which at first 
appeared in their Conversation ; and gave a Licence to 
their Tongues to reveal their Sentiments more freely. 

" They told me, That it was their absolute Design to 
take Possession of the Ohio, and by G — they would do 
it ; For that altho' they were sensible the English could 
raise two Men for their one ; yet they knew their Motions 
were too slow and dilatory to prevent any Undertaking 
of theirs." 

Part of the events of the /next three days, show- 
ing how much dexterity such a situation invited, 
are thus told in Washington's words : — 



22 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

" 5th. Rain'd excessively all Day, which prevented 
our Travelling. Capt. Joncaire sent for the Half-King, 
as he had but just heard that he came with me ; He 
affected to be much concerned that I did not make free 
to bring them in before. I excused it in the best Man- 
ner I was capable, and told him, I did not think their 
company agreeable, as I had heard him say a good deal 
in Dispraise of bidians in general. But another Motive 
prevented me from bringing them into his Company ; I 
knew he was Interpreter, and a Person of very great 
Influence among the Indians, and had lately used all 
possible Means to draw them over to their Interest ; 
therefore I was desirous of giving no Opportunity that 
could be avoided. 

" When they came in, there was great Pleasure ex- 
pressed at seeing them. He wondered how they could 
be so near without coming to visit him ; made several 
trifling Presents ; and applied Liquor so fast, that they 
were soon rendered incapable of the Business they came 
about, notwithstanding the Caution which was given. 

"6th. The Half-King came to my Tent, quite sober, 
and insisted very much that I should stay and hear what 
he had to say to the FrencJi. I fain would have pre- 
vented his speaking any Thing till he came to the Com- 
mandant, but could not prevail. . . . 

" 7th. . . . We found it extremely difficult to get the 
Indians off To-day, as every Strategem had been used to 
prevent their going-up with me. I had last Night, left 
Jo Jin Davison (the Indian Interpreter whom I brought 
with me from Town), and strictly charged him not to be 
out of their Company, as I could not get them over to 
my Tent ; for they had some Business with Kusfahga, 
and chiefly to know the Reason why he did not deliver 
up the FiencJi Belt which he had in Keeping: But I was 
obliged to send Mr. Gist over To-day to fetch them ; 
which he did with great Persuasion." 



WOODSMAN AND DIPLOMAT AT TWENTY-ONE 23 

On the 7th they departed, against difficulties 
which may be suggested by some extracts from 
the journal of Gist/ who wrote with business-like 
concision an account of the journey. 

" The creek being very high, we were obliged to 
carry all our baggage over on trees, and swim our 
horses. The Major and I went first with our boots 
on." 

" Monday, loth. Our Indians killed a bear. Here 
we had a Creek to cross, very deep ; we got over on a 
tree, and got our goods over." 

They arrived, Washington delivered his letter, 
and while the officers held a council, he took the^ 
dimensions of the fort, and estimated the number 
of soldiers and canoes. 

" As I found many Plots concerted to retard the 
Indians Business, and prevent their returning with me ; 
I endeavor'd all that lay in my Power to frustrate their 
Schemes, and hurry them on to execute their intended 
Design." 

Washington therefore urged on the conference 
between the Indians and the French, and learned 
after it from the Half-King that the French spoke 
to the savages with friendliness and promised to 
send some goods to Logstown for them. 

*' But I rather think the Design of that is, to bring 
away all our straggling Traders they meet with as I 

^ Gist's Journal is printed in the Mass. Hist. Col., Vol. 5, 3d series. 



24 



GEORGE WASHmGTON 



privately understood they intended to carry an Officer, 
&c., with them. And what rather confirms this Opinion, 
I was enquiring of the Commander, by what Authority 
he had made Prisoners of several of our English Sub- 
jects. He told me that the Country belong'd to them; 
that no Englishman had a Right to trade upon those 
Waters; and that he had Orders to make every Person 
Prisoner who attempted it on the OJiio, or the Waters 
of it." 

Washington received the answer to the govern- 
or's letter on the 14th, but the French were suc- 
cessful in refusing to accept back the belt. The 
diary now proceeds : — 

"15th. The Commandant ordered a plentiful Store 
of Liquor, Provision, &c., to be put on Board our Canoe ; 
and appeared to be extremely complaisant, though he 
was exerting every Artifice which he could invent to set 
our own Indians at Variance with us, to prevent their 
going 'till after our Departure. Presents, Rewards and 
every Thing which could be suggested by him or his 
Officers, — I can't say that ever in my Life I suffered so 
much Anxiety as I did in this Affair : I saw that every 
Stratagem which the most fruitful Brain could invent, 
was practised, to win the Half-King to their interest ; 
and that leaving him here was giving them the Oppor- 
tunity they aimed at, — I went to the Half-King, and 
press'd him in the strongest Terms to go : He told me the 
Commandant would not discharge him 'till the Morning. 
I then went to the Commandant and desired him to do 
their Business ; and complain'd of ill Treatment : For 
keeping them, as they were Part of my Company, was 
detaining me. This he promised not to do, but to for- 
ward my Journey as much as he could. He protested 



WOODSiMAN AND DIPLOMAT AT TWENTY-ONE 25 

he did not keep them, but was ignorant of the Cause of 
their Stay ; though I soon found it out : — He had prom- 
ised them a present of Guns, &c., if they would wait 'till 
the morning. 

" As I was very much press'd, by the Indians, to wait 
this Day, for them, I consented, on a Promise, That 
nothing should hinder them in the Morning. 

" 1 6th. The French were not slack in their Inventions 
to keep the Indians this Day also : But as they were obli- 
gated, according to Promise, to give the Present, they 
then endeavoured to try the Power of Liquor ; which I 
doubt not would have prevailed at any other Time than 
this ; But I urged and insisted with the King so closely 
upon his Word, that he refrained, and set off with us as 
he had engaged." 

^ Under date of the 2 2d Gist makes this urbane 
entry : — 

*'Set out. The creek began to be very low, and we 
were forced to get out, to keep our Canoe from over- 
setting, several times ; the water freezing to our clothes ; 
and we had the pleasure of seeing the French overset, 
and the brandy and wine floating in the creek, and run 
by them, and left them to shift for themselves." 

The next day the Half-King found a reason for 
delay. 

*' As I found he intended to stay here a Day or two, 
and knew that Monsieur Joncaire would employ every 
Scheme to set him against the English as he had before 
done ; I told him I hoped he would guard against Flat- 
tery, and let no fine Speeches influence him in their 
Favour." 



26 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

The horses were now showino^ such sions of 
exhaustion, that all except the drivers proceeded 
on foot, Washington in a hunting dress. In a few 
days he became so uneasy to get back to the gov- 
ernor with his report, that he requested Gist to 
accompany him on a short cut on foot through 
the woods. 

" Indeed," says Gist, " I was unwilling he should 
undertake such a travel, who had never been used 
to walking before this time. But as he insisted 
on it, I set out with our packs, like Indians, and 
travelled eighteen miles. That night we lodged 
at an Indian cabin, and the major was much 
fatigued." 

So frozen was everything, that they could 
scarcely find water to drink. The next day, 
near a place called Murdering Town, they met 
a savage who pretended to be friendly, and called 
Gist by his Indian name. The trader remem- 
bered him as one he had seen at the French fort, 
and as the major insisted on going the nearest 
way to the forks of the Allegheny, they asked the 
Indian to show the route. Washington's feet soon 
grew sore, and his body weary, and he wished 
to encamp. The Indian offered to carry his 
gun, and when the major refused, the savage grew 
churlish, and pressed the whites to proceed, on 
the plea of escaping hostile Indians. From vari- 
ous signs they soon mistrusted this red guide. 



WOODSMAN AND DIPLOMAT AT TWENTY-ONE 2/ 

Suddenly the savage, walking only fifteen paces 
ahead, turned and fired. 

" Are you shot ? " asked Washington. 

" No," replied Gist. 

They rushed on the Indian, who was reloading 
behind a white oak. When they had captured 
him Gist wished to kill him, but Washington 
refused, and it was therefore necessary to watch 
him closely. 

" As you will not have him killed," said Gist, 
" we must get away, and then we must travel all 
night." 

The trader then turned to the Indian and pre- 
tended to believe that the gun went off by acci- 
dent, adding: " Do you go home, and as we are 
very much tired, we will follow your track in the 
morning ; and here is a cake of bread for you, and 
you must give us meat in the morning." 

The Indian seemed glad to get off so easily. 
Gist followed and listened until he was fairly out 
of the way, and then returned for Washington, led 
him half a mile to a place where they built a fire, 
left it, travelled all night, and arrived in the morn- 
ing at the head of Piney Creek. All that day also 
they pressed on without rest, down the creek, and 
just as night came on, they saw more Indian 
tracks. For greater security they separated after 
dark, appointing a place further on to meet. 
When they came together there they decided 



28 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

that it was safe enough to encamp and sleep. 
Difficulties and dangers in plenty remained. 
Travelling all the next day, they reached a 
stream which they expected to find frozen. In- 
stead, the ice was driving in vast quantities. 
With one poor hatchet they spent a whole day 
building a raft. Before they were halfway 
across, the ice caught Washington's pole and 
jerked him into the stream. He seized the raft 
and climbed back, and they struggled on, vainly 
trying for either shore. Finally, they jumped 
into the freezing water and reached an island. 
Gist had all his fingers frozen, and part of his 
toes. In the morning the ice was solid, and they 
reached Frazer's, where they encountered a party 
characteristic of the times. Twenty Indians were 
there, who had been going to war, from which 
they were dissuaded by finding seven white peo- 
ple killed, and all scalped but one, a woman, as 
they explained, with definiteness, who had very 
light hair. The bodies, lying about the house, 
were being eaten by hogs. Fearing that the 
whites would take them for the murderers, these 
warriors hastily returned and declared that the 
guilty Indians were doubtless French sympa- 
thizers from the Ottawa nation. 

Gist and Washington intended to take horses 
at this point, and as it would require some time 
to find them, the major took a little trip of three 



WOODSMAN AND DIPLOMAT AT TWENTY-ONE 29 

miles to visit the Indian queen, Aliquippa, who 
had resented his omission to call upon her on the 
journey to the fort. Washington presented her 
with a match-coat and a bottle of rum, "which 
latter," says he, " was thought much the best 
present of the two." 

Even after they were on horseback, a mode of 
travel to which he was more accustomed, Wash- 
ington describes the journey as being as fatiguing 
as it is possible to conceive. There was but one 
day without incessant snow or rain, and the cold 
was always intense. This sort of thing tough- 
ened the young man's spirit and strengthened his 
body, but it left him subject to fevers and pleuri- 
sies. He delivered his papers to the governor 
on January i6th. The Journal was printed in the 
newspapers and republished abroad by the British 
Government. 



CHAPTER III 

FIGHTING IN THE WILDERNESS 

" It was strange that in a savage forest of Pennsylvania, a young 
Virginian officer should fire a shot, and waken up a war that was to 
last for sixty years, which was to cover his own country and pass 
into Europe, to cost France her American colonies, to sever ours 
from us, and create the great Western Republic ; to rage over the 
Old World when extinguished in the New ; and, of all the myriads 
engaged in the vast contest, to leave the prize of the greatest fame 
with him who struck the first blow." — Thackeray. 

The commandant's reply showed that the French 
were firm in their pretensions, and the governor 
of Virginia was pugnacious. After endeavoring 
to induce cooperation by the other colonies, 
and being met by indifference, scepticism, and 
technical difficulties, he and his council neverthe- 
less decided to raise, by draft if necessary, two 
companies, of one hundred men each, who were to 
cross the mountains and assemble at the mouth 
of Redstone Creek, a branch of the Monongahela, 
where the Ohio Company had put up a structure, 
and complete or build a fort there. A road for 
cannon and wagons must be cut through a dense 
forest, over two ranges of high mountains and 
countless hills and streams. 

30 



FIGHTING IN THE WILDERNESS ' 31 

Captain William Trent, a business associate of 
Benjamin Franklin, was to command one com- 
pany. He was sent forward to enlist his men 
among the traders and frontier settlers, and begin 
work at once, and Major Washington was to pro- 
cure enlistments, superintend the transportation 
of supplies and cannon from Alexandria, and then 
proceed to the fort. His instructions contained 
these brisk words : — 

" You are to act on the defensive, but in case any 
attempts are made to obstruct the works or interrupt 
our settlements by any persons whatsoever, you are to 
restrain all such offenders, and in case of resistance to 
make prisoners of, or kill and destroy them." 

Washington found enlistment difficult. The 
men clamored for their pay, and there was neither 
paymaster nor set time for payment. His recruits 
were mainly from the homeless and idle poor ; he 
had no clothes to cover them ; shoes, stockings, 
shirts, coats, and waistcoats were lacking, and the 
men wished him to advance his own money and 
reimburse himself from their pay, — a risk which 
he was both unwilling and unable to incur. Mer- 
chants would not furnish clothing with no cer- 
tainty of payment. While engaged in this work, 
Washington sought and obtained promotion. 
He denied any wish for the chief command, on 
account of his youth and inexperience, but flat- 
tered himself that as lieutenant colonel under " a 



32 GEORGE WASHINC^ON 

skilful commander or man of sense " his applica- 
tion and diligent study would render him worthy 
of his position. This reply was received from a 
member of the governor s council : — 

" Dear George : I enclose you your commission. 
God prosper you with it. Your friend, 

Richard Corbin." 

He sought a command for his old fencing-mas- 
ter and interpreter, Jacob Vanbraam, recommend- 
ing him highly, and on April 2d, 1754, with two 
companies, aggregating about one hundred and 
fifty men, soon increased by a detachment under 
Captain Stephen, he began his march toward the 
Ohio. An express from Trent, received on the 
19th, demanding reenforcements, came too late, as 
Washington soon learned that in Trent's absence 
his men, confronted by a superior force, had sur- 
rendered the fort. Two young Indians brought a 
message from the Half- King that he was ready 
for immediate war. Washington, sending mes- 
sages to the chief, as well as to the governors of 
three colonies, began a slow advance across the 
mountains, preparing a road for the passage of 
cannon. His letters breathed the spirit of com- 
bat. To the governor of Maryland he wrote 
that the cause ought to arouse the heroic spirit of 
every free-born Englishman. To the Half-King 
he alleged that the colonists resented the usage 



FIGHTING IN THE WILDERNESS 33 

of the treacherous French, and held the interest 
of the Indians as dear as their lives. He stated 
that their hearts were glowing with affection for 
the savages, and signed himself "your friend and 
brother, Washington, or Conotocarius," the Town 
Destroyer, a name apparently inherited by him 
through the excellent memory of the Indian. The 
editor of the principal French source of informa- 
tion on this campaign thinks, however, that Wash- 
ington took on the name to please the savages, 
" whom he wished to seduce." He was certainly 
not the prig of Weems and of tradition. He wrote 
to Dinwiddie, about his impressment of wagons, 
that, while he had strained the law, he had done 
it for the good of the service, and expected sup- 
port from the authorities, in case any busybody 
intermeddled. 

So difficult was the work of widening the road 
through the forests that they made only from two 
to four miles a day, and, while they plodded on, 
retreating traders told them of great reenforce- 
ments for the French, who were also actively 
bribing the Indians. Washington's effective force 
was about one hundred and fifty, as he had sent 
away Trent's men, who had joined him after sur- 
rendering the fort, because their privileges and 
freedom from martial law demoralized the Virgin- 
ians. He sent off a detachment under Stephen 
to discover the French, capture any stragglers, 



34 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

find a good place for a fort, and send in the Half- 
King. Early in May French scouts were seen 
within six or seven miles of Washington's camp. 
He looked for safety to the Indians, and begged 
for materials to bribe them in competition with 
the French. The behavior of the Virginia gov- 
ernment enraged his officers, and he himself was 
so disgusted with his pay that he asked to serve 
as a volunteer, preferring, as he put it, to dig as a 
day laborer rather than to serve upon such igno- 
ble terms. He complained also of the small 
allowance of minor officers, with so few of whom 
it was as impossible to do the necessary duty as 
to conquer kingdoms with his handful of men. 
Dinwiddie treated these complaints as unreason- 
able and pernicious, and the Virginians, unwilling 
to resign in the face of danger, had to swallow 
their pride. 

Washington sent another message to the Half- 
King, urging him to march vigorously to the aid 
of his brethren the English, who would protect 
him against the French, — a " treacherous enemy," 
who, according to the colonel's allegations, refused 
even provisions to the Indian who visited their 
fort, whereas he called attention to the fact that 
the young Indian who served as messenger had 
been fed by the English as much as " his heart 
could wish." 

On the 23d of May he heard that the French 



FIGHTING IN THE WILDERNESS 35 

had sent off an expedition with extreme se- 
crecy. The Indian who was helping Washing- 
ton explore the Youghiogheny, a branch of the 
Monongahela, in hopes of finding it navigable, 
refused to go more than a short distance, until 
Washington promised him a ruffled shirt, — a gift 
which he had to take from his personal supply, 
having no stock of presents. He wrote to his 
superior offlcer, Colonel Fry, that four or five 
hundred pounds in goods to be offered to Indians 
for particular services would accomplish more 
than as many thousands given at a treaty. 

On the 24th a messenger from the Half- King 
asserted that the French were on their way to 
attack the English. Washington put his men 
behind two natural intrenchments at Great 
Meadows, where, by clearing the bushes, he 
made what' he described to Dinwiddie as "a 
charming field for an encounter." Scouring par- 
ties found no enemy, but Gist came in on the 
27th with the news that fifty men had passed his 
house, twelve or thirteen miles away. Washing- 
ton immediately detached seventy-five men to fol- 
low them. In this situation he grew still more 
anxious for Indian aid, and he was compelled to 
give them liquor for everything they did. He 
told the young Indians in the camp that the 
French sought to kill their chief the Half- King, 
and this fiction " had its desired effect." The 



36 GEORGE WASHIN(?TON 

same evening came a message from the Half- 
King, that he had discovered the tracks of two 
men, which led to a low glen, where the French 
were probably concealed. On the instant, Wash- 
ington sent off forty men, ordered his ammunition 
to be concealed, left a guard, and set out, in the 
black night and heavy rain, with his remaining 
force. All night they marched, on a path hardly 
wide enough for one, frequently losing it, and fol- 
lowing one another, until almost sunrise, when, 
after hopelessly losing one man, they reached the 
Indian camp, where they held a council, and de- 
cided on a joint attack. Two men went to sur- 
vey the ground, and then the force marched, 
Indian fashion, single file, to surround the French. 
When they approached the rocky hollow, where 
the French were supposed to be, they separated, 
the Indians on the left, the Virginians, with 
Washington in the lead, on the right. The 
French were taken by surprise. The first man 
they saw was the young Virginian leader. They 
reached for their arms, and Washington immedi- 
ately gave the word to fire. The French replied, 
and for ten or fifteen minutes there was a sharp 
exchange. The Indians being securely hidden, the 
Virginians received the fire. A French Canadian 
fled at the beginning of the fight. The com- 
mander, an ensign, Coulon de Jumonville, fell, and 
the Half- King afterward boasted, with Indian 



FIGHTING IN THE WILDERNESS 37 

magniloquence, that he killed him with his 
tomahawk. Nine other Frenchmen also fell 
dead. According to Adam Stephen, who was 
in the fight, the guns of the English were so 
wet that they trusted to the bayonet. Finally, 
when a third of the French, who seem to have 
fought creditably, were dead, the rest surren- 
dered, twenty-one in number, whereupon the Ind- 
ians scalped the corpses, appropriated most of 
their arms, and thenceforth boasted of doing all 
the work. The Virginians and their savages pro- 
ceeded with the prisoners to the Indian camp, 
where Washington urged the Half- King to go to 
Winchester to see the governor, but the chief 
refused, and preferred to send messengers with 
scalps to the allied nations, inviting them to take 
up the hatchet. An Indian versioi) of these inci- 
dents runs as follows : ^ — 

" Ten were killed and twenty-one were taken alive 
whom we delivered to Colonel Washington, telling him 
that we had blooded the edge of his hatchet a little. 

'' Davison said he was in the action and that there 
were but eight Indians who did most of the execution 
that was done. Colonel Washington and the Half -King 
differed much in judgment, and on the Colonel's refus- 
ing to take his advice the English and Indians sepa- 
rated. After which the Indians discovered the French 
in an hollow and hid themselves, lying on their bellies 
behind a hill ; afterwards they discovered Colonel 

1 Weiser's Journal. 



38 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Washington on the opposite side of the hollow in the 
gray of the morning, and when the English fired, which 
they r''i in great confusion, the Indians came out of 
thei^ over and closed with the French and killed them 
wit. their tomahawks, on which the French surren- 
dered." 

Washington, having lost but one man killed 
and two or three wounded, marched on, the colo- 
nel of twenty-two years, although pleased with his 
exploit, little knowing what a place in history his 
small victory was to take. This, the first certain 
slaughter of the Seven Years' War, has occupied 
the imagination of the world, and given occasion 
to much literature. " Such was the complication 
of political interests," says Voltaire, " that a can- 
non shot fired in America could give the signal 
that set Europe in a blaze." " Not a cannon 
shot," remarks Parkman, " but a volley from the 
hunting pieces of a few backwoodsmen com- 
manded by George Washington." 

The fight led to some charges against " the 
cruel Vvasinghton," as he is called by a French 
chronicler of the time. The prisoners informed 
him that they had been sent with a summons or- 
dering him to depart, — a plea which Washington 
treated as a pretence to cloak their real object, of 
discovering the camp and learning what they 
could about the English forces and situation. 
He remarked that ambassadors did not skulk for 



FIGHTING IN THE WILDERNESS 39 

two days in the neighborhood of the camp to 
which they bore a message. Nevertheless, he 
imphed, according to the French version^ ''f his 
Journal, that he deemed the summons so ins ^nt 
that had he received it openly from two men he 
would hardly have allowed them to return. It 
ordered all English to withdraw from the domain 
of the king of France, and threatened compulsion. 
Before exhibiting this, Jumonville, according to 
his orders, was to send back couriers, with all 
speed, to Fort Duquesne, — probably so that 
Contrecourt, the commandant, could send as large 
a force as might be needed. French deserters 
told Washington that the party came as spies, 
and were to show the summons only if threatened 
by a superior force. The accounts in French 
histories are founded on a letter written by M. 
de Contrecoeur to the governor of Canada, June 
2d, 1 754, in which he says : — 

" A Canadian belonging to the party, named Mou- 
ceau, made his escape, who relates that they had built 
cabins in a low bottom, where they lay during a heavy 
rain. At seven o'clock in the morning they saw them- 
selves encircled on one side by the English, and by sav- 
ages on the other. Two discharges of musketry were 
fired upon them by the English, but none by the sav- 
ages. M. de Jumonville called to them by an inter- 
preter to desist, as he had something to cay to them. 
The firing ceased. M. de Jumonville caused the sum- 
mons to be read which I had sent, admonishing them 



40 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

to retire, a copy of which I have the honor to enclose. 
Whilst this was reading, the said Mouceau saw the 
French gathered close around M. de Jumonville, in the 
midst of the English and the savages. At that time 
Mouceau escaped through the woods, making his way 
hither partly by land, and partly in a small canoe on 
the river Monongahela. . . . 

*' The savages who were present say that M. de Jumon- 
ville was killed by a musket-shot in the head, while he 
was listening to the reading of the summons, and that 
the English would immediately have destroyed the whole 
party, if the savages had not rushed in before them and 
prevented their attempt." 

This is certainly testimony of little weight, and 
Washington wrote in the Journal, of which we 
have only the French version : — 

" They pretend they called to us as soon as they had 
discovered us. It is absolutely false, for I was then 
marching at the head of the company, and can posi- 
tively affirm that as soon as they saw us they ran to 
their arms, without calling ; as I must have heard them 
had they so done." 

A French ofificer who was in the fight left a 
memoir saying that Jumonville tried to show the 
letter only when he found himself the weaker 
party. The spirit in which Washington acted, 
however, must be judged partly in the light of 
his letters to Dinwiddie, in which he says that 
the Half- King was sure the French had bad 
hearts, and that, if the English were so foolish as 



FIGHTING IN THE WILDERNESS 41 

to let them go, he would never assist them again. 
Besides, Washington goes on, with a spirit not 
yet as remarkable for fairness as it later became, 
to have lost La Force, who was among the prison- 
ers, would have been worse than to have let fifty 
other men escape, as his active spirit and com- 
mand of the Indian tongue made him of great 
use to the French in securing savage allies. 
Washington also puts forth the remarkable opin- 
ion that in strict justice the prisoners ought to 
be hanged as spies of the worst sort. At this ^ 
period he is impetuous, pugnacious, slightly tricky, ) 
and not as conscientious as he became with years 3 
and prominence. ' . 

The colonel just now begins to show^ that his 
young blood responds to his exploits, and that 
he has no unreasonable modesty. While pre- 
paring for the next encounter, he writes Din- 
widdie that he has a constitution hardy enough 
to undergo the most severe trials, " and, I flatter 
myself, resolution to face what any man durst, as 
shall be proved when it comes to the test, which 
I believe we are on the borders of." He bitterly 
objects to his treatment, from salary down to food, 
as " my services, so far as I have knowledge, will 
equal those of the best officer." However, de- 
spite his complaints, he has no notion of yielding. 
" Nothing but very unequal numbers shall engage 
me to submit or retreat." Moreover, he promises 



42 GEORGE WASHINCTON 

to urge contentment on the other officers, as far 
as he can " play the hypocrite." These complaints 
are vivaciously mixed in with statements that he 
expects every hour to be attacked by much larger 
numbers ; that he can promise not to be sur- 
prised, " let them come at what hour they will " ; 
that this is all he can promise, although he hopes 
to deserve more. In a postscript he begs his 
honor's favor for Captain Vanbraam, who has 
acted, he says, extremely well. 

Washington also immediately wrote to his 
brother an account of his " most signal victory." 
This was on the 31st, and he said that he expected 
every hour to be attacked by a superior force, " but 
if they forbear one day longer we shall be ready 
for them," as he expected to have a fort ready, 
and forty reenforcements from Colonel Fry, which 
" will enable us to exert our noble courage with 
spirit." 

Horace Walpole has this famous passage in his 
" Memoirs of George the Second " : — 

*' In the express which Major Washington despatched 
on his preceding little victory (the skirmish with Jumon- 
ville) he concluded with these words : * I heard the bullets 
whistle, and, beUeve me, there is something charming in 
the sound.' On hearing of this the king said sensibly, 
' he would not say so if he had been used to hear many.' 
However, this brave braggart learned to blush for his 
rhodomontade, and, desiring to serve General Braddock 
as aide-de-camp, acquitted himself nobly." 



FIGHTING IN THE WILDERNESS 43 

Washington later replied to inquiry that, if he 
ever used these words, it was when he was very 
young. Yet what is there to be ashamed of in a 
simple statement of the mere truth? Exhilara- 
tion in the face of personal danger was a feeling 
that he never outgrew, although he learned enough 
about the hearts of men to be less open in its ex- 
pression. To the governor he wrote : — 

" If the whole Detach't of the Frencli behaved with 
no more Resokition than this chosen Party did, I flatter 
.myself we shall have no g't trouble in driving them to 

the d Montreal. Tho' I took forty Men under my 

com'd when I marched out, yet the darkness of the 
night was so great that by wandering a little from the 
-main body 7 were lost, and but 33 ingag'd. There was 
also but 7 Indians with arms, two of which were Boys, 
— one Dinwiddle, your Honor's God Son, who behav'd 
well in action. There were 5 or 6 other Indians, who 
served to knock the poor, unhappy wounded in the head 
and bereiv'd them of their scalps. So that we had but 
40 men, with which we tried and took 32 or 3 men, 
besides others who may have escaped. One we have 
certain acc't did. 

''We have just finish'd a small paUisado'd Fort, in 
which, with my small numbers, I shall not fear the 
attack of 500 men." 

Mrs. John Carlyle wrote to him,^ on June 17th, 
thus : - — 

1 See " Letters to Washington," edited by S. M. Hamilton, Vol. I., p. 9. 
I have found this new collection very valuable in supplementing the one 
made by Mr. Sparks, and have to thank the Colonial Dames for advance 
sheets, as well as for permission to quote from the published volumes. 



44 GEORGE WASHINCfrON 

" Those pleasing reflections on the hours past ought 
to be banished out of your thoughts. You have now a 
nobler prospect, that of preserving your country from 
the insults of an enemy ; and as God has blessed your 
first attempt, hope he may continue his blessing, and 
on your return who knows but fortune may have reserved 
you for some unknown She that may recompense you 
for all the trials past." 

The fort, reenforcements having arrived, con- 
tained about three hundred men, all now under 
Washington's immediate command, Colonel Fry 
having died. Various Indians joined them, among* 
them the Queen Aliquippa. 

" Queen AHquippa desired that her son who is really 
a great warrior, might be taken into council, as he was 
declining and unfit for business, and that he should have 
an English name given him. I therefore called the 
Indians together by the advice of the Half-King, pre- 
sented one of the medals, and desired him to wear it in 
remembrance of his great father, the King of England, 
and called him by the name of Colonel Fairfax, which 
he was told signified the first of the council. This gave 
him great pleasure. I was also informed, that an Eng- 
lish name would please the Half-King, which made me 
presume to give him that of your Honor, and call him 
Dinwiddle ; interpreted in their language, the head of 
all. I am, &c." 

To some distinguished Delawares Washington 
ventured the politic if hardly veracious statement 
that he had come to put them In possession of the 
land which the French had taken from them. On 



FIGHTING IN THE WILDERNESS 45 

June 2ist he held a council, at which he addressed 
the Delawares : — 

'' Brethren, By your open and Generous, Conduct on 
this Occasion, You have made yourselves dearer to us 
than ever ; we return You our Thanks, that you did not 
go to Venango, when the French first invited You there; 
their treating You in such a childish Manner, as we per- 
ceive they do, raises in us a just and strong Resentment. 
They call You their Children, and speak to You, as if 
You in reality were Children, and had no more Under- 
standing than such. Weigh well, my Brethren, and 
compare all their Discourse, and You will find that all 
it tends to, is to tell You, I am going to open your Eyes, 
to unstop your Ears, and such words, to no Purpose, 
and only proper to amuse Children. You also observe 
Brethren that if they deliver a Speech, or make a Prom- 
ise, and confirm it by a Belt, they imagine it binds them 
no longer than they think it consistent with their Inter- 
est to stand to it. They have given one Example of it ; 
and I will make You observe it, in the Jump which they 
say they have made over the Boundaries, which you had 
set them ; which ought to stir You up my Brethren to 
just Anger, and lead you to embrace the favorable Op- 
portunity that We offer You, as we are come at Your Re- 
quest, to assist You and by Means of which. You may 
make them Jump back again, with more Speed than 
they advanced." 

Immediately after his account of this speech he 
remarks : — 

" After this, the Council broke up, and tliose treach- 
erous Devils, who had been sent by the French as Spies, 
returned though not without some Tale ready prepared 



46 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

to amuse the French, which may be of Service to make 
our own Designs succeed." 

And soon after: — 

" As those Indians, who were Spies sent by the 
French, were very inquisitive, and asked us many Ques- 
tions, to know by what Way we proposed to go to the 
Fort, and what Time we expected to arrive there ; I left 
off working any further at the Road, and told them as 
we intended to keep on across the Woods as far as the 
Fort, falling the Trees, &c. that we were waiting here 
for the Reinforcement which was coming to us, our Ar- 
tillery, and our Waggons to accompany us there ; but, 
as soon as they were gone, I set about marking out and 
clearing a Road towards Red Stone." 

Surely, not a colorless or inhuman individual 
this, but one fully willing to fight any devil with 
his own weapons. In spite, however, of all his 
blandishments, on this very day the Delawares, 
the Half- King, and all the other Indians deserted 
him, and he sent menaces and wampum in a vain 
attempt to get them back. 

Washington was reenforced by a company from 
South Carolina under Captain Mackaye, but as 
that officer held a King's commission, and there- 
fore would not take even the parole and counter- 
sign from Washington, and as his soldiers, refusing 
to work without extra pay, merely demoralized 
the Virginians, Washington left them as a guard 
at the intrenchments at Great Meadows, which he 
called Fort Necessity, while he himself proceeded 



FIGHTING IN THE WILDERNESS 47 

to cut a road, for carriages and artillery, through 
a gorge in the mountains, to Gist's settlement, 
thirteen miles away. This task occupied two 
weeks. News of great reenforcements at Fort 
Duquesne led Washington to call Mackaye for- 
ward again. After some hesitation, it was decided 
to retreat. The horses were w^ak and the men 
overworked. Washington gave up his horse to 
carry public stores, and paid soldiers to take his 
baggage. When, in two days, they reached Great 
Meadows, they were too weary to continue the 
retreat. Sending expresses to hurry on the two 
independent companies that had arrived at Alex- 
andria twenty days before, and ought by this time 
to have been at Will's Creek, they began to 
strengthen the fortification with logs. The fort 
was a simple square enclosure, partly surrounded 
by a trench, said by a French writer to have been 
in places only knee deep. There was an exterior 
embankment, which seems to have been made like 
a rifle pit, with a ditch inside. The glade in which 
the fort stood was covered with bushes and lonQ^ 
grass, and hills began to rise about one hundred 
and fifty yards from the fort on one side, and one 
hundred yards on the other. The high ground on 
one side came to within about sixty yards, and to 
this point the enemy could advance under the pro- 
tection of trees. 

The approaching French were reported to be 



48 GEORGE WASHInStON 

nine hundred strong, besides Indians. On the 
morning of July 3d a wounded sentry gave an alarm. 
Soon after, the enemy appeared at the edge of the 
wood, firing and yelling, at the distance of six hun- 
dred yards. Washington had drawn up his men 
outside the fort, hoping for a direct attack, and he 
now gave no order to return to the fortifications, 
as the distant shooting did no harm. Seeing, how- 
ever, soon after, that the French were making 
their way around to the nearest part of the woods, 
a move which was what he had hoped to avoid, he 
withdrew his men into the fort. There, soaked in 
the heavy rain, they received a constant cross-fire 
from the French and Indians, hidden in the trees, 
on both sides of the fort. The steady downpour 
turned the embankment into mud. Men in the 
ditch on the outwork stood to the knee in water. 
The swivels mounted on the rampart were almost 
silenced, so poorly protected were the gunners. 
The soldiers were half starved. They had only two 
screw rods to clean all their guns, and at times it 
was almost too wet for either side to fire, but 
toward evening the fighting was sharp again. 
About eight o'clock the French called out to pro- 
pose a parley. Vv^ashington, fearing a spy, declined. 
When the French sent again and invited him to 
send an officer to them, he decided to comply. 
Of the two men who spoke French one was 
wounded, and the other was the Vanbraam of 



FIGHTING IN THE WILDERNESS 49 

whom Washington thought so well. This man 
was sent, and, after a long absence, returned, with 
the terms of capitulation suggested by Villiers, 
the French commander. Vanbraam himself was 
able to make out the words only because he had 
heard the paper read by the French officer, and 
Stephen says, that as there was no opportunity to 
make a written translation, they were " obliged 
to take the sense of them from his mouth," imply- 
ing that perhaps he gave mere summaries of some 
clauses. The English objected to certain terms. 
The French were willing to change them, an 
agreement was reached, and the articles signed 
about midnight. The English marched out in 
the early morning, with the honors of war, their 
drums beating, carrying one of their swivels, and 
with the promise of protection from the Indians, 
having on their part promised to return to Fort 
Duquesne the prisoners taken in the preceding 
scrimmage. They left two hostages, of whom 
Vanbraam was one. Twelve Virginians remained 
on the field, dead, and forty-three wounded were 
carried away. Mackaye's losses are not known. 
The French commander reported his killed and 
wounded as twenty. The total number of the 
French forces is unknown, but was probably twice 
as large as the English. The cattle and horses 
of the defeated had all been killed, and as they 
had to carry the wounded on their backs they 



50 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

were compelled to leave most of the baggage. 
Worn out with fatigue they soon encamped, to 
wait for wagons. The Indians plundered them, 
threatened an attack, knocked to pieces their medi- 
cine chest, and murdered and scalped two of the 
wounded. The officers with difficulty prevented 
a panic. They finally left the wounded with a 
guard, and marched the fifty-two miles across the 
Alleghanies to Will's Creek. 

The articles signed under such confusing con- 
ditions led to some misapprehensions, the most 
notable of which concerned article 7, in which 
the English promised to return the prisoners 
taken " dans Fassassinat du Sieur de Jumonviller 
Villiers, in his report to his government, lays 
special stress on having compelled the English to 
confess to the "assassination," but his report is 
throughout ludicrously inaccurate, and the testi- 
mony is overwhelming that Vanbraam never used 
the word " assassination," but spoke of the death or 
loss of Jumonville. Washington, Mackaye, and 
Stephen agree in this. Vanbraam was charged 
with treachery, but Washington believed in his 
innocence, which, indeed, there is not the smallest 
reason to doubt, and befriended him after his 
return from captivity. The only real disgrace 
involved was Dinwiddie's refusal to live up to this 
seventh clause, retaining his prisoners on a pre- 
text. In allusion to one clause, which later also 



FIGHTING IN THE WILDERNESS 51 

caused allegations of bad faith, because it was not 
clearly understood, or because it was misrepre- 
sented by the French, Horace Walpole wrote : 
" The French have tied up the hands of an ex- 
cellent fanfaron, a Major Washington, whom they 
took and engaged not to serve for a year." Wash- 
ington and all the officers, — except two, Van- 
braam, on account of his blunder, and the Major 
of the regiment. Muse, who was charged with 
cowardice, — received a vote of thanks from the 
house of Burgesses. One of the hostages. Cap- 
tain Stobo, a Scotchman, was held for years at 
Quebec. One notable spring he escaped, and, 
joining a British army, pointed out to General 
Wolfe a path up a cliff, in a little cove called 
Anse de Foulon. 

Washington's friend, the Half-King, died during 
the autumn following the skirmish which began so 
long a struggle,, not, however, without having in 
his pique given to an interpreter some sentences 
in which possibly some truth is mixed with much 
picturesque foolishness : that Washington " lay 
at one place from one full moon to the other and 
made no fortifications at all, but that little thing 
upon the Meadow, where he thought the French 
would come up to him in open field ; -that had he 
taken the Half-King's advice and made such forti- 
fications as the Half- King advised him to make 
he would certainly have beat the French off ; that 



52 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

the French had acted as great cowards, and 
the EngHsh as fools in that engagement ; that 
he (the Half- King) had carried off his wife and 
children; so did other Indians before the battle 
begun, because Colonel Washington would never 
listen to them, but was always driving them on to 
fight by his directions." 



CHAPTER IV 

BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT 

" It is not in Indian wars that heroes are celebrated, but it is there 
they are formed." — Fisher Ames. 

Governor Dinwiddie, full of zeal and military 
ignorance, was eager for the impossible. Early 
in August Washington received a letter from him, 
stating that the Council, considering the present 
state of the English forces and the possibility that 
the French would be reenforced in the spring, had 
determined that their forces should march immedi- 
ately over the Alleghany Mountains, and either 
take Fort Duquesne or build a fort in a suitable 
place: Washington was ordered to fill his regi- 
ment up to three hundred men and then march 
to Will's Creek. His comment (not made in these 
words to the governor, however), was that to re- 
pair to Will's Creek with the regiment, under the 
present circumstances, was as impracticable as it 
would be to take Fort Duquesne, which, with 
their present means, would be impossible. He 
pointed out to his friend, William Fairfax, that 
" considering the present state of our forces" ought 
to have led to exactly the opposite conclusion 

53 



54 GEORGE WASHINC^TON 

from the one reached on that ground by the gov- 
ernor and council. Before they could get properly 
started, the season would be at hand when horses 
could not travel over the mountains, on account 
of snow, want of forage, and slipperiness, and when 
the men, unused to the exposure, could not live 
in tents. 

The men were impressed by the former vain 
attempt, in a better season of the year, to take 
possession of the fork of the Allegheny and 
Monongahela. The knowledge that the same 
effort was to be repeated raised a general clamor, 
and six deserted the first night, August loth. Not 
a man in the regiment ow^ied a blanket, there was 
not sufficient ammunition, owing to a quarrel be- 
tween the governor and his council, and there were 
no presents to secure Indians. The men, as Wash- 
ington described them to Dinwiddle, w^ere naked, 
and could not even get a hat. On August 19th, 
while the officers were at church, twenty-five sol- 
diers collected, and were about to desert, when 
they were discovered and imprisoned. Scarcely 
a night passed without some desertion. Wash- 
ington, who liked to use authority, was eager to 
make an example of some of them, but the uncer- 
tainty of the laws made him hesitate. 

Such difficulties filled the summer. There was 
a rumor that Major Muse, he who was charged 
with cowardice, had challenged Washington to 



BRAUDOCK'S DEFEAT 55 

fight, and a French friend of Washington's, obvi- 
ously an admirer, was asked about the truth of it. 

** My answer was no other but that he should rather 
choose to go to hell than doing of it, for had he had 
such thing declared, that was his sure road." 

In October the Assembly granted ^20,000, and 
the governor received ^10,000 sterling from Eng- 
land, with the promise of as much more. He 
thereupon resolved to enlarge his army to ten 
companies, of one hundred men each, with no 
officer in the Virginia regiment above the rank 
of captain. As all precedence of rank was denied 
to the colonial officers, in comparison with the 
bearers of royal commissions, Washington, always 
keenly interested in what military notions called 
his honor, immediately resigned. 

Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, who was now 
commander-in-chief of all the forces engaged 
against the French, was anxious to get Washing- 
ton back into the army. His second in command. 
Colonel Fitzhugh, wrote that everything would 
be done to make him happy and prevent interfer- 
ence, but Washington replied : — 

" If you think me capable of holding a commission, 
that has neither rank or emolument annexed to it, you 
must entertain a very contemptible opinion of my weak- 
ness, and believe me to be more empty than the commis- 
sion itself. . . . 

'* I shall have the consolation of knowing, that I have 



56 GEORGE WASHINC^TON 

opened the way, when the smallness of our numbers ex- 
posed us to the attacks of a superior enemy ; that I have 
hitherto stood the heat and brunt of the day, and escaped 
untouched in time of extreme danger; and that I have 
the thanks of my country for the services I have ren- 
dered it. . . . 

'* It was to obey the call of honor, and the advice of 
my friends, I declined it, and not to gratify any desire 
I had to leave the miUtary line. My incHnations are 
strongly bent to arms." 

The irate young officer even went so far as to 
hint that the new arrangement was an under- 
handed effort to do him injustice. In spite of 
his dissatisfaction he gave general publicity to 
his desire to serve, if an opportunity should arise 
to do so without injury to his pride. 

General Braddock, the new commander-in-chief, 
landed in Virginia, with two regiments of the 
British army, supplies, and artillery, on February 
20th, 1755, and soon received, from the anxious 
youth at Mount Vernon, a congratulatory letter 
on his safe arrival, a document not without a 
tinge of flattery. On March 2d he offered 
Washington the position of aide-de-camp, which 
removed all his objections and gave him the 
longed-for privilege of being in the approaching 
conflict, and leaving the " life of retirement " into 
which he alleged that he was just entering. 

His joining the army was somewhat delayed, 
owing partly to the alarm of his mother, who 



BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT 57 

came to Mount Vernon to protest, partly to the 
confusion of affairs at the family seat, of which he 
was now the official head. He sent a map, and 
promised to join the army as soon as possible. 
To the Speaker of the House of Delegates in 
Virginia he wrote: "The sole motive, w^hich in- 
vites me to the field, is the laudable desire of 
serving my country, and not the gratification of 
any ambitious or lucrative plans." 

He said he was more unreserved to this friend 
than he would be to the world, " whose censures 
and criticisms often place good designs in a bad 
light." This sensitiveness to the world's com- 
ments, which later became so acute, thus began 
early. He joined Braddock at Frederickstown, 
much displeased, so strong w^as the local feeling, 
that the army should pass through Maryland, when 
it might have passed through Virginia. From 
the beginning his relations were pleasant with 
the General, of whom he wrote to his brother : — 

*' I hope to please without ceremonious attentions or 
difficulty ; for I may add, it cannot be done witJi theni^ 
as he uses and requires less ceremony than you can eas- 
ily conceive." 

Braddock had the distinction of despising all 
Colonials except Franklin and Washington. Of 
this picturesque individual Franklin said : — 

" This general was, I think, a brave man, and might 
probably have made a good figure in some European 



58 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

war. But he had too much self-confidence ; too high an 
opinion of the validity of regular troops ; too mean a one 
of both Americans and Indians." 

In his Life of Chatham, the Rev. Francis Thack- 
eray says : — 

" General Braddock, a stranger certainly to fear, but 
obstinate in the extreme, with no other notions of war 
than the punctilious enforcement of military discipline, 
was sent to oppose the wild attacks and ambuscades of 
the Indians. A fencing master might, with equal pru- 
dence, be sent to attack a tiger." 

Although overbearing, it is doubtful if Brad- 
dock was overconfident. George Anne Bellamy, 
the actress, whom he visited the night before he left 
England for America, says in her "Apology": — 

'* Before we parted the General told me that he should 
never see me more ; for he was going with a handful of 
men to conquer whole nations ; and to do this they must 
cut their way through unknown woods. He produced a 
map of the country, saying at the same time, ^ Dear Pop, 
we are sent like sacrifices to the altar.' " 

When the divisions of the army were assembled 
at Will's Creek, Braddock was enraged at not 
finding the horses and wagons for which he had 
contracted. He emerged from his difficulty only 
through the efficiency of Benjamin Franklin, who, 
as postmaster-general of the provinces, visited the 
commander to see about the mail, realized what a 
hopeless situation he was in, and agreed to furnish 



BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT 59 

one hundred and fifty wagons and the needed 
number of horses. He then went among the 
farmers of Pennsylvania and in two weeks pro- 
cured the vehicles and animals, on his own per- 
sonal security, a deed which was described by 
General Braddock as "the only instance of 
address or integrity which he had seen in the 
provinces." 

Washington's frame of mind was sanguine. 

" As to any danger from the enemy, I look upon it 
as trifling, for I believe the French will be obliged to 
exert their utmost force to repel the attacks to the north- 
ward," 

His practical attitude is shown in this same 
letter : — 

" I have now a good opportunity, and shall not neglect 
it, of forming an acquaintance, which may be serviceable 
hereafter, if I find it worth while to push my fortune in 
the military line." 

He and the General argued, but always amica- 
bly. The conditions which angered Braddock 
also aroused the ire of Washington. " You may 
with (almost) equal success attempt to raise the 
dead as the force of this country." He thought 
the Pennsylvanians ought to be " chastised for 
their insensibility to danger, and disregard of 
their Sovereign's expectation." Nevertheless, he 
thus severely judged Braddock: — 



6o GEORGE WASHINGTON 

" The General, by frequent breaches of contract, has 
lost all patience ; and, for want of that temper and 
moderation, which should be used by a man of sense 
upon these occasions, will, I fear, represent us in a light 
we little deserve ; for, instead of blaming the individuals, 
as he ought, he charges all his disappointments to publick 
supineness, and looks upon the country, I beUeve, as 
void of honor and honesty. We have frequent disputes 
on this head, which are maintained with warmth on both 
sides, especially on his, who is incapable of arguing 
without, or giving up any point he asserts, let it be ever 
so incompatible with reason or common sense." 

The delay gave Washington time to write let- 
ters, in which some details of his character appear. 
To his brother he wrote : " I have conceived a 
good opinion of the horse Gist ; therefore, I hope 
you will not let /izm want for proper care and good 
usage " ; and, " I hope you will have frequent 
opportunities to particularize the state of my 
affairs, which will administer much satisfaction 
to a person in my situation." This delight in the 
business details of his life never left him, in war 
or peace. To the same brother he wrote : — 

*' I should be glad to hear that you live in perfect 
harmony and good fellowship with the family at Belvoir, 
as it is in their power to be very serviceable upon many 
occasions to us, as young beginners." 

A more definite ambition also existed in his 
mind : — 



BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT 6l 

" As I understand the County of Fairfax is to be 
divided, and that Mr. Alexander intends to decline serv- 
ing it. I should be glad if you could come at Colo. 
Fairfax's intentions, and let me know whether he pur- 
poses to offer himself as a candidate. If he does not, I 
should be glad to take a poll, if I thought my chance 
tolerably good. . . . 

''The Revd. Mr. Green's and Captain McCarty's 
interests in this matter would be of consequence, and 
I should be glad if you could sound their pulse upon 
that occasion. Conduct the whole till you are satisfied 
of the sentiments of those I have mentioned, with an 
air of indifference and unconcern ; after that, you may 
regulate your conduct accordingly to circumstances." 

Washington's cheerful and confident state of 
mind about the war was matched by the public, 
which subscribed in advance for a celebration of 
Braddock's victory, while Benjam.in Franklin char- 
acteristically stated that he preferred to wait until 
that victory was won. Washington's buoyancy 
was somewhat lowered when, early in June, re- 
ports came from Pennsylvania that nine hundred 
men had passed Oswego to reenforce the French 
on the Ohio, "so that from these accounts we 
have reason to believe that we shall have more 
to do than to go up the hills and- come down." 
At the same time he was far from pleased with a 
certain appointment, of which he remarked, show- 
ing a not infrequent tendency to sarcasm : — 

" General Innes has accepted of a Commission to be 
Governour of Fort Cumberland, where he is to reside ; 



62 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

and will shortly receive another to be hangman, or 
something of that kind, and for which he is equally 
qualified." 

During his stay in camp he gave one of the 
earliest glimpses of the character of his famous 
but querulous mother : — 

" Hon'd Madam," he wrote, " I was favored with 
your letter by Mr. Dick, and am sorry it is not in 
my power to provide you with a Dutch servant, 
or the butter, agreeably to your desire. We are 
quite out of the part of the country where either 
is to be had, there being few or no inhabitants 
where we now lie encamped, and butter cannot 
be had here to supply the wants of the army." 
' I hope," he also says, " you will spend the chief 
part of your time at Mount Vernon, as you have 
proposed to do, where I am certain every thing will 
be ordered as much to your satisfaction as possi- 
ble, in the situation we are in there." 

He later grew less patient with her constant 
complaints. Her principal idea about George's 
being in the army seems to have been the extra 
inconvenience it caused her, and much of her talk 
was in line with these sentences in one of her 
letters : — 

" I am borrowing a little Cornn — no Cornn in the 
Cornn house. I never lived soe poore in my life." 

Doubtless she deserved her reputation for 
a strong executive character, but toward the 



BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT 63 

end of her life she grew more and more un- 
reasonable. 

On the 14th, as the army was setting out from 
George's Creek, Washington was seized with a 
violent fever and pains in the head, which made 
it almost impossible for him to sit on a horse. 
He proceeded in a covered wagon, until the jolt- 
ing distressed him, when he was left on the road 
with a guard, after extracting a promise that he 
should be brought to the front before they reached 
the French fort. This promise and the doctor's 
threats were, he says, the sole causes of his con- 
sent to wait. 

The difficulties of the passage across the rough 
mountain roads made it necessary to decide whether 
to go very slowly or to leave behind one division 
of the army with the artillery and heavy bag- 
gage. Washington, who had already given up his 
best horse to encourage a retrenchment of the 
baggage, was consulted, apparently, by General 
Braddock, and he, in the warmest language at his 
command, urged a forward movement, even if it 
must be made with a " small but chosen band, and 
with such artillery and light stores as were abso- 
lutely necessary." 

Washington was soon with the rear division. 
On the 8th of July, riding in a covered wagon, he 
overtook the advance division at the mouth of the 
Youghiogheny River, fifteen miles from Fort Du- 



64 GEORGE WASHir^GTON 

quesne, and the next morning he attended Brad- 
dock on horseback, although " very weak and 
low," as he put it. 

On account of the steepness of the ground on 
the north side of the Monongahela, which pre- 
vented the army from marching in that direction, 
it was necessary to ford the river twice, and march 
a part of the way on the south side. The Virginia 
troops did not make a good impression on the 
regulars. Robert Orme, a favorite of Braddock, 
said of them : "Their languid, spiritless, and un- 
soldierlike appearance, considered with the lowness 
and ignorance of most of their officers, gave little 
hopes of their future good behaviour." 

They marched until about noon, when they 
were within ten miles of Fort Duquesne. At 
this point they crossed the river again, to the 
north bank, where their road lay through a level 
plain at the north end of which began a gradual 
ascent soon leading to hills of some height, and 
thence through an uneven country covered with 
trees. The advance party consisted of three hun- 
dred men under Colonel Gage, who later pla3^ed 
so conspicuous a role in Washington's life, and 
who was thus gaining experience in the same en- 
counters that did so much to prepare the colonies 
for their conflict with Great Britain. The advance 
division was followed immediately by another party 
of two hundred. Then came Braddock, with the 



BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT 65 

main body, artillery, and baggage. All had crossed 
the river, and the advance body was proceeding 
cheerfully up the hill, on two sides of which ran 
ravines eight or ten feet deep, covered with trees and 
long grass. Along the level ground between these 
ravines the army came, as if on parade. General 
Braddock had not encumbered himself with scouts. 
His army made a lovely sight, which seemed to 
him enough. He despised Indians, Colonists, and 
the whole principle of irregular warfare. When 
one hundred friendly Indians joined him on the 
march, he treated them so coldly, in spite of 
Washington's protests, that they had all fallen 
away. On the very night preceding this dress 
parade between the ravines they came back and 
renewed their offers, and the sentinel before Brad- 
dock's tent, as he afterward told Mr. Sparks, 
heard a conversation in which Washington urged 
the superiority of Indians as scouts, which he had 
so often urged before, — and was met only by the 
General's loyalty to regular troops and conven- 
tional methods. It is said that even the com- 
mon soldiers from Virginia had warned their 
regular companions, and possibly made them 
nervous. 

After the first division of the -British had pro- 
ceeded well into the field between the ravines, 
still seeing and hearing no enemy, they received 
a volley of musket balls in their faces. " We 



66 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

could only tell where the enemy were by the 
smoke of their muskets," said one of the soldiers. 

Nevertheless the British replied with a volley 
which killed the French commander, and was so 
heavy that the Indians, thinking it came from 
artillery, were about to retreat, when Dumas, on 
whom the command devolved, rallied them. He 
sent them, under French ofKicers, around to attack 
the right flank, while he held the front. The 
British now received another rain of bullets on 
the side, the woods rang about them with savage 
yells, and they saw only smoke, with the occa- 
sional form of an Indian venturing from behind a 
tree to secure a scalp. 

The Virginians, familiar with such sights and 
sounds, dropped on the ground and rushed behind 
trees. The panic-stricken regulars tried to imi- 
tate them. Braddock, who had immediately come 
up, was furious, and as daring as he was angry. 
Riding about the field, he forced the Virginians 
and the regulars back into line, for no sane pur- 
pose, apparently, as there was no bayonet charge 
ordered and no use made of the artillery. They 
were to keep ranks merely because that was the 
regular thing to do. Four horses were shot under 
the intrepid commander while he was engaged in 
this work of destroying his own army, and he 
mounted a fifth. 

All his aides were shot down but one. George 



BRADDOCK^S DEFEAT 6/ 

Washington, hardly well enough to sit in his sad- 
dle, rode about the field, delivering, and endeav- 
oring to enforce, the orders of his deluded superior. 
His request that the Virginians be allowed to 
fight in their own way was rejected. He could 
only obey. Six feet two inches in height, stand- 
ing out in the clear light, as he wheeled his horse 
hither and thither, the handsome ofilicer of twenty- 
three made a noble target. Almost ever)^ officer 
had fallen. Washington jumped from two horses, 
as they dropped before the unseen enemy's bul- 
lets, and leaped upon a third. Four bullets tore 
his clothes. There was perhaps essential truth in 
the eloquence with which the Indian chief later 
described him : ^ — 

" It was on the day, when the white man's blood 
mixed with the streams of our forest, that I first beheld 
this chief ; I called to my young men and said, mark yon 
tall and daring warrior ? He is not of the red-coat 
tribe — he hath an Indian's wisdom, and his warriors 
fight as we do — himself is alone exposed. Quick, let 
your aim be certain, and he dies. Our rifles were lev- 
elled, rifles which but for him knew not how to miss — 
'twas all in vain, a power mightier far than we shielded 
him from harm. He can not die in battle." 

It was a hopeless struggle. Braddock dropped. 
What was left of the army fled. The dead and 
wounded were about seven hundred and fifty, half 

^ Custis, " Reminiscences," 303. 



68 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

the army, almost equal in numbers to the enemy's 
whole force. 

Washington wrote to his mother from Fort 
Cumberland, July i8th: — 

" The Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery, 
and were nearly all killed. . . . The dastardly behav- 
ior of those they call regulars exposed all others, that 
were inclined' to do their duty, to almost certain death ; 
and at last,, in despite of all the efforts of the officers to 
the contrary, they ran as sheep pursued by wolves, and 
it was impossible to rally them." 

He wrote to Dinwiddie : — 

" The poor Virginians behaved like men, and died 
like soldiers. ... It is imagined (I believe with great 
justice, too) that two thirds of both killed and wounded 
received their shots from our own cowardly dogs of sol- 
diers, who gathered themselves into a body, contrary to 
orders, ten and twelve deep, would then level, fire, and 
shoot down the men before them." 

It is said that during Braddock's last hours 
he could not endure the sight of a redcoat, but 
murmured praises of "the blues," or Virginians, 
and said he hoped he should live to reward them. 
The army moved forward on the 13th, and that 
night Braddock died. To protect his body from 
the Indians he was buried in the road, about a 
mile from Fort Necessity. On the 17th, the sick 
and wounded reached Fort Cumberland, and on 
the next day Washington wrote to Augustine : 
" As I have heard, since my arrival at this place, 



BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT 69 

a circumstantial account of my deatfi and dying 
speech, I take the earhest opportunity of contra- 
dicting the first, and of assuring you that I have, 
as yet, not composed the latter." He reached 
Mount Vernon July 26th, quite exhausted. His 
mother immediately visited him and tried to in- 
duce him to give up military life. Other friends 
were more impressed with his glory. William 
Fairfax, writing from Bel voir, the day of Wash- 
ington's arrival at Mount Vernon, acknowledged 
an invitation to that seat, and said that if a Satur- 
day night's rest was not sufficient to get him to 
Belvoir the next day, " the ladies will try to get 
horses to equip one chair or attempt their strength 
on foot to salute you, so desirous are they with 
loving speed to have an ocular demonstration of 
your being the same identical gentleman that 
lately departed to defend his country's cause." 

To this letter the following was added in the 
handwriting of Sally Fairfax : — 

" Dear Sir : — After thanking Heaven for your safe 
return I must accuse you of great unkindness in re- 
fusing us the pleasure of seeing you this night. I do 
assure you nothing but our being satisfied that our com- 
pany would be disagreeable should prevent us from try- 
ing if our Legs would not carry us to Mount Vernon 
this night, but if you will not come to us to-morrow 
morning very early we shall be at Mount Vernon. 

** S. Fairfax. 
" Ann Spearing, 
'' EHz'th Dent." 



70 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

The Rev. Samuel Davies, preaching in August 
to a company from Hanover County, spoke of 
" that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I 
cannot but hope Providence has hitherto pre- 
served in so signal a manner for some important 
service to his country." 

The next month Joseph Ball wrote to Washing- 
ton from England : — 

"Good Couz : — 

" It is a sensible pleasure to me to hear that you have 
behaved yourself with such a martial spirit in all your 
engagements with the French nigh Ohio. Go on as 
you have begun, and God prosper you. 

** We have heard of General Braddock's defeat. 
Everybody blames his rash conduct. 

*' Everybody commends the courage of the Virginia 
and Carolina men." 

The affair at Duquesne was more than a local 
triumph for Virginia over the supercilious regulars 
from Great Britain. Such fighting gave many 
Virginians training for greater deeds, and the 
incident made a long step forward in the career 
of Washington, a link in the chain which led the 
second Congress to put him at the head of the 
Continental armies in 1775. 



CHAPTER V 

THE VIRGINIA COMMANDER 

" I am sensible such a Medley of undisciplined Militia must 
create you various trouble, but having Caesar's Commentaries and 
perhaps Quintus Curtius, you have therein read of greater Fatigues, 
Murmurings, Mutinys, and Defections than will probably come to 
your Share, tho' if any of those Casualtys should interrupt your 
Quiet, I doubt not but you would bear them with equal Mag- 
nanimity." — Col. William Fairfax, to Washington, 

As Virginia, proud of her share in Braddock's 
expedition, immediately decided to increase her 
forces, talk about Washington as commander was 
inevitable. The governor was supposed to favor 
another. Washington, although in truth he snuffed 
the battle from afar, was proudly determined to 
take the post, if at all, on his own terms. 

That he was determined to remain in the field, 
if he could do so on a satisfactory footing, is 
shown by this letter to his mother : — 

"Mount Vernon, i^ August, 1755. 

'' Honored Madam, 

" If it is in my power to avoid going to the Ohio again, 
I shall ; but if the command is pressed upon me by the 
general voice of the country, and offered upon such 
terms as cannot be objected against, it would reflect 
dishonor upon me to refuse ; and that, I am sure, must 

71 



J2 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

or ought to give you greater uneasiness than my going 
in an honorable command, for upon no other terms I 
will accept of it. At present I have no proposals made 
to me, nor have I any advice of such an intention, except 
from private hands." 

One thing in particular he should insist upon, 
which youth and inexperience had made him over- 
look before, — a voice in the appointment of sub- 
ordinates; for, he explained with some eloquence, 
when misfortunes happen through lower officers, 
mankind are likely " to level their vindictive cen- 
sures against the chief." He was the more deter- 
mined to have all the conditions right before he 
would accept, because the leader in the present 
crisis could hardly gain honor and was extremely 
likely to lose what reputation he might have. 

** I am very apprehensive I should lose what at pres- 
ent constitutes the chief part of my happiness, i.e., the 
esteem and notice which the country has been pleased 
to honor me with." 

The public voice was with him, and more than 
he asked was granted. Dinwiddie wrote to Sir 
Thomas Pelham, September 6th, 1755: — 

"■ And as I was sensible the Companies of Rangers 
were not sufficient to protect our frontiers in case of an 
invasion from the enemy, I have therefore granted to 
raise 16 companies to augment our forces and 1000 men, 
and have them incorporated into a regiment. 

**The command thereof is given to Colonel George 
Washington, who was one of General Braddock's aid- 



THE VIRGINIA COMMANDER ^3 

de-camps, and I think a man of great merit and reso- 
lution. . . . And I am convinced that if General 
Braddock had survived he would have recommended 
Mr. Washington to the royal favour." 

Dinwiddle also wrote to General James Aber- 
crombie on May 28th, 1756: — 

" General Braddock had so high an esteem for his 
merit that he made him one of his aid-de-camps, and if 
he had survived I believe he would have provided hand- 
somely for him in the Regulars. He is a person much 
beloved here and has gone through many hardships in 
the service, and I really think he has great merit, and 
believe he can raise more men here than any one pres- 
ent that I know." 

Whether merely because he w^as a provincial, 
or from the want of family influence pointed out 
by his uncle, Washington never received a royal 
commission. 

Immediately after his appointment, he wrote to 
a friend that he was unequal to the task, which 
had assumed an importance for which his experi- 
ence was insufficient, — a phrase wdiich, like many 
another expression of his methodical mind, had 
its echo on a larger stage twenty years later. 

He began along lines with which he was already 
familiar. Indians, now as always, seemed to him 
of the highest importance. He wrote to Montour 
his belief that his presence among the Indians 
" would animate their just indignation to do some- 



74 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

thing noble," and promised, now that he was com- 
mander, that they should be treated as " brothers 
of our great King beyond the waters." 
To Dinwiddie he wrote : — 

" I despatched an express immediately upon my arrival 
at this place with a copy of the enclosed to Andrew Mon- 
tour, who I heard was at a place called Long Island, 
with three hundred Indians, to see if he would engage 
him and them to join us. The letter savours a little of 
flattery." 

To induce necessary work, Washington had to 
use force on his refractory fellow-citizens, for 
which in return they promised to blow his brains 
out. The soldiers, too, were insolent, and looked 
upon discipline as insult, fit only for negroes ; 
their officers were indolent ; and the youth who 
had been placed over them begged earnestly 
for laws permitting greater severity. Several of 
his officers were gone recruiting " six weeks or 
two months without getting a man, spending their 
time in all the gayety of pleasureable mirth "; and 
some of them were so violent as to set a whole 
neighborhood against enlistment. Danger hov- 
ered always about the long and imperfectly pro- 
tected frontier, and when there were no actual 
misfortunes rumors took their place. Two terri- 
fied messengers came on successive days, the 
second saying that the Indians were within four 
miles of the headquarters at Winchester, and that 



THE VIRGINIA COMMANDER 75 

he had heard the shrieks of the unhappy wretches 
whom they murdered on their march. Washing- 
ton collected what force he could, — about forty 
in all, — and hurried to the scene, where he found 
three drunken soldiers "carousing, firing their pis- 
tols, and uttering the most unheard of impreca- 
tions." 

A mulatto and a negro hunting cattle were 
enough to start wild reports in the minds of the 
now panic-stricken inhabitants, who could hardly 
be expected to feel safe along a frontier of three 
hundred and fifty miles. Washington urged his 
officers to train the men for bush-fighting particu- 
Jarly, although he also told them to read treatises, 
Bland's among them, on the art of war. He 
promised them the strictest discipline, combined 
with the severest justice, no partiality, and no dis- 
crimination. 

To Lieutenant Colonel Stephen he wrote : — 

" Things not yet being rightly settled for punishing 
deserters according to their crimes, you must go on in 
the old way of ' ivJiipping stoutly.' " 

Benjamin Franklin said that Washington could 
get assistance from Pennsylvania sooner than any 
other person in America — this when he was 
twenty-three. 

These serious concerns were, in the middle of 
the winter, varied by a trip which he made to 
Boston, to see the commander-in-chief of all the 



'je GEORGE WASHINC^TON 

British forces in America, to settle whether he 
should resign, or be given express power over 
lower officers holding royal commissions, one of 
whom had been making himself unbearable. 
Washington went over the five hundred miles 
on horseback with two companions. He started 
February 4th, 1756, and stopped on the way at 
Philadelphia, where he visited the governor, and 
at New York, where he indulged his natural pro- 
pensities by falling in love with Miss Mary Phi- 
lipse. His accounts in New York include an item 
for "treating ladies," apparently four of them, to 
see a "piece of mechanism, called the Micro- 
cosm, or, the world in Miniature," and shortly 
after another item for " treating ladies " to the 
" Microcosm " again. His losses at cards in New 
York amounted to Si*. He then went through 
New London, Newport, and Providence, and 
spent ten days in Boston, where he obtained a 
decision in his favor from the commander, who 
received him favorably, and confided in him his 
plans for the next campaign against the French. 
His losses at cards here amounted to ^5 \s. 2\d. 
Of course addiction to cards to this degree 
had no element of gambling, but in spite of 
its being an almost universal fashion, it did 
show a certain vacancy of intellectual interest, 
hinted later by John Armstrong, who wrote to 
him: — 



THE VIRGINIA COMMANDER yy 

" but here permit a Single remark flowing from Old 
friendship, and it shall be on the infatuating Game of 
Card-playing, of which on thirty years observation I am 
not able to say so much good as a witty person once 
did of what he Censur'd as a Culpable & extravagant 
piece of Dress t/iat it covered a multitude of Sins ; but 
that game, always unfriendly to Society, turns conversa- 
tion out of Doors, and curtails our opportunities to 
mutual good. I can easily presume on your good 
nature to forgive this piece of unfashionable freedom." 

Washington paid the chambermaid ^i ']s. 6d. 
and spent over ^95 on a tailor, and over ^94 on 
silver lace. He stopped at New York on his way 
back, and when he was compelled to leave he 
asked a confidential friend to keep him informed 
how things went with Miss Philipse. This dep- 
uty, Joseph Chew, a few months later reported 
thus : — 

"As to the latter part of your letter I often had the 
pleasure of breakfasting with the charming Polly. Roger 
Morris was there (don't be startled), but not always. You 
know he is a ladies' man, — always has something to say. 
The town talked of it as a sure and settled affair. I can't 
say I think so, and that I much doubt it, but assure 
you I had little acquaintance with Mr. Morris and only 
slightly hinted it to Miss Polly; but how can you be 
excused to continue so long at Philadelphia } I think I 
should have made a kind of flying march of it if it had 
been only to see whether the works were sufficient to 
withstand a vigorous attack, — you, a soldier and a lover 
— I intend to set out to-morrow for New York, where I 
will not be wanting to let Miss Polly know the sincere 



78 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

regard a friend of mine has for her, and I am sure if she 
had my eyes to see through she would prefer him to all 
others." 1 

Washington, for reasons unknown, remained 
supine, and the young woman became the bride 
of Braddock's aide-de-camp, the Captain Morris 
referred to. 

Captain George Mercer wrote to Washington 
from Charles Town, August 17th, 1757: — 

" A great imperfection here too is the bad shape of 
the ladies. Many of them are crooked, and have a very 
bad air, and not those enticing, heaving, throbbing, allur- 
ing, plump breasts common with our northern belles." 

From Chew, a little later, came this comment 
on one part of the country : — 

" New England vanity seems to be at as high a flow 
as ever. . . . One of the finest fellows in the colony 
was absolutely rejected by the Assembly, for no other 
reason than using the following words at Lake George 
(1755) when the forces seemed inclined to give way: 
' Damn ye, my lads, stand to tJie breastworks and fire 
away, — you kill them faster than the Devil can carry 
them off.' 

" This was and is esteemed by our pious, sanctified 
brutes as great prof aneness, and shows the want of faith 
and grace." 

Returned to Winchester Washington found that 
the Indians had committed several murders in the 

1 It is especially in such personal aspects that the Hamilton Collection 
of letters to Washington valuably supplements Mr. Sparks'. 



THE VIRGINIA COMMANDER 79 

neighborhood, and that the frontier was Hkely to 
be driven back to the Blue Ridge. With natural 
passion, considering the conditions, he speaks of 
the Indians " and their more cruel Associates." 
Two weeks before Dumas, then in command of 
Fort Duquesne, had written, in orders to a subor- 
dinate, leading a party of Indian scouts, special 
directions "to prevent the savages from commit- 
ting any cruelties upon those who may fall into 
their hands." In 1757 this instruction was found 
in the pocket of a French cadet, killed near Fort 
Cumberland, " If any prisoners are taken, he will 
see that no cruelty is used by the savages." ^ Per- 
haps it is not surprising that, with so many massa- 
cres in their minds, settlers made little allowance 
for French instructions. 

Doubtless Washington was somewhat piqued 
by the superior success of the French in hold- 
ing the savage ear — a feat which he so keenly 
wished to perform. Although a self-contained 
youth, he was hot-blooded, and his heat led to 
adjectives against his foes, and to sarcasm : 
" Mr. Pearis sends the scalp by Jenkins ; and I 
hope, although it is not an Indian's, they will 
meet with an adequate reward at least, as the 
monsieur's is of much more consequence." He 
spoke of his foes as " an insulting and merciless 

1 Cf. Pennsylvania Archives, II., 600, and Memoirs of Hist. Soc. of Pa., 
Vol. 6, p. 289. 



So GEORGE WASHINGTON 

enemy," and of the possible victory of the French 
as " a final stab to liberty and property." They 
were " barbarians, with hellish arts," more cruel 
than the Indians. To Dinwiddie he made use of 
this eloquence : — 

" I am too little acquainted, sir, with pathetic lan- 
guage, to attempt a description of the people's distresses, 
though I have a generous soul, sensible of wrong, and 
swelling for redress. But what can I do ? If bleeding, 
dying ! would glut their insatiate revenge, I would be a 
willing offering to savage fury, and die by inches to 
save a people ! " 

*' Hoping it will now be in our power to testify a just 
abhorrence of the cruel butcheries exercised on our 
friends, in the unfortunate day of General Braddock's 
defeat ; and, moreover, to show our enemies, that we 
can practise all that lenity of which they on/y can boast, 
without affording any adequate proofs at all." 

That sarcasm may seem to contrast with this 
report : — 

" I always send out some white people with the 
Indians, and will, to-day or to-morrow, send an officer 
and some alert white men with another, party of Chero- 
kees, as you desire it ; tho', I must confess, that I think 
these scalping parties of Indians we send out will more 
effectually harrass the enemy (by keeping them under 
continual alarms) than any parties of white people 
can do." 

We must remember, however, to judge fairly 
the passions of those days, that the English em- 
ployed Indians only in warfare, whereas the French 



THE VIRGINIA COMMANDER 8 1 

probably instigated them to attacks on peaceable 
settlements, with the resulting murders of women 
and children. 

Washington believed the Indians superior to the 
best white men in their manner of fighting in 
the woods, in craft, activity, and endurance. They 
stirred him even into imagery : " They prowl 
about like wolves, and, like them, do their mis- 
chief by stealth." He thought them worth "more 
than twice their number of white men." " No 
troops in the universe can guard against the 
cunning and wiles of Indians." He spoke of 
Indians as "the best if not the 07ily troops fit to 
cope with Indians in such grounds." With equal 
ardor he stated that " the timidity of the inhabit- 
ants of this country is to be equalled by nothing 
but their perverseness." 

His troubles had led him again to the brink of 
resignation, but tactful treatment on every hand 
quieted his feelings, and he continued with his 
work, seeking men used to hunting, and setting a 
standard of discipline indicated by these rules : — 

'' Any commissioned officer, who stands by and sees 
irregularities committed, and does not endeavor to quell 
them, shall be immediately put under arrest. Any non- 
commissioned officer present, who does not interpose, 
shall be immediately reduced and receive corporal pun- 
ishment. 

" Any soldier, who shall presume to quarrel or fight 
shall receive five hundred lashes, without the benefit of 



82 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

a court-martial. The offender, upon complaint made, 
shall have strict justice done him. Any soldier found 
drunk shall receive one hundred lashes, without benefit 
of a court-martial." 

A slightly later rule was : " The officers are 
desired, if they hear any man swear, or make use 
of an oath or execration, to order the offender 
twenty-five lashes immediately, without a court- 
martial. For the second offence, they will be 
more severely punished." To Stephen he wrote : 
" Waters and Burrass behaved extremely ill when 
they were sent down last. If I could lay my 
hands on them, I would try the effect of looo 
lashes on the former, and whether a general court- 
martial would not condemn the latter to a life 
eternal ! " 

After a mutiny he reported : " We have held 
a General Court Martial on the Ring-leaders; 
flogged several severely ; and have some under 
sentence of death." Referring to desertions he 
said : " I have a Gallows near 40 feet high 
erected (which has terrified the rest exceedingly), 
and I am determined if I can be justified in the 
proceeding, to hang two or three on it, as an 
example to others." To Dinwiddie he wrote: 
" Your Honor will, I hope, excuse my hanging 
instead of shooting them. It conveyed much 
more terror to others, and it was for example sake 
that we did it." 



THE VIRGINIA COMiMANDER 83 

However, he was not without mercy : — 

" As your Honor were pleased to leave to my discre- 
tion to punish or pardon the criminals, I have resolved 
on the latter, since I find example of so little weight, 
and since those poor unhappy criminals have undergone 
no small pain of body and mind in a dark prison, closely 
ironed." 

Washington believed that the only way to make 
the colony safe was to destroy the French on the 
Ohio. Governor Dinwiddie for once agreed with 
him, but that troublesome official was recalled, 
and sailed in January, 1758. Lord Loudoun, 
then the commander, selected for the unworthy 
family reasons which were then so powerful in 
England, paid little attention to Virginia troubles, 
being occupied with schemes against Canada, and 
he also was recalled. Dr. Franklin has preserved 
the traditional jest about Loudoun, that he was 
like St. George on the signs, always on horseback 
and never advancing. Washington was taken so ill 
that he went to Mount Vernon, where dysentery 
and fever used him up so thoroughly that he was 
unable for four months to return to his command. 

When he recovered, the good effects of William 
Pitt's rise to the ministry in England were being 
felt. Washington found that another expedition 
against Fort Duquesne, for which he had so vig- 
orously pleaded, w^as now to be made, under com- 
mand of General John Forbes. Pitt also proposed 



84 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

that the royal government should bear heavy- 
expenses formerly borne by the colonies, and that 
provincial officers, up to and including the rank 
of colonel, should rank equally with those holding 
the king's commission. Pleased with the new 
minister's liberality, the Virginia assembly voted 
to increase its army to two thousand men, in two 
regiments, one to be under the immediate charge 
of Washington, who also remained commander- 
in-chief of the Virginia forces. He went to work, 
and began immediately laboring over the details 
which affect the efficiency of an army. He begged 
for army tents, field equipage, rum, tools, clothes, 
and for the removal of an inequality of pay between 
the two regiments. Having the discretionary 
power of calling out the militia, he refused to use 
it, because a draft would cause such discontent; 
and a little later he spoke of militia as " ungovern- 
able and refractory." One of his practical reforms 
was to put his soldiers and officers into Indian 
dress. " 'Tis an unbecoming dress, I confess, for 
an officer; but convenience, rather than show^ 
I think, should be consulted." 

Starting for the Ohio, Washington was, for the 
second time, a candidate for the Virginia Assem- 
bly. This time, although he did not comply 
with the appeals of his friends to be present, he 
was elected, at considerable expense for rum, wine, 
brandy, beer, punch, and food. 



THE VIRGINIA COMMANDER 85 

Another matter of some importance was begun 
before his departure. His interest in women 
was that of the typical soldier, strong, and, intel- 
lectually speaking, superficial, — rather boyish. 
He apparently did not work much havoc among 
them. He lacked the gift of intimacy, and al- 
though handsome in figure, he was stif¥, and his 
face was marked by the smallpox. The only thing 
in him which pleased them was military glory. 
However, his time was approaching. Riding by 
the house of a friend, mounted, it is said, on the 
horse on which Braddock was killed, and which 
had been left to him by that general, he was 
persuaded to stay to dinner. At this meal was 
another guest, almost his own age, who had been 
a widow about a year. Washington talked with 
her, decided to remain all night, came back again as 
soon as he could (in May, 1 758), stayed another day, 
and when he began his march, in July, he sent 
her the following, from near Fort Cumberland : — 

" We have begun our march for the Ohio. A Courier 
is starting for Williamsburg, and I embrace the oppor- 
tunity to send a few words to one whose life is now 
inseparable from mine. Since that happy hour when 
we made our pledges to each other, my thoughts have 
been continually going to you as to another self. That 
an All-powerful Providence may keep us both in safety 
is the prayer of your ever faithful and 

'* Ever affectionate Friend, 
" 20th of July, " G. Washington. 

" Mrs. Martha Custis." 



86 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

A couple of months later, from the same camp, 
he wrote to Mrs. George William Fairfax : — 

" If you allow that any honor can be derived from 
my opposition to our present system of management, 
you destroy the merit of it entirely in me by attributing 
my anxiety to the animating prospect of possessing Mrs. 
Custis, when — I need not tell you, guess yourself. 
Should not my own honor and country's welfare be the 
excitement ? 'Tis true, I profess myself a votary of love. 
I acknowledge that a lady is in the case, and further, I 
confess that this lady is known to you. ... I feel the 
force of her amiable beauties in the recollection of a thou- 
sand tender passages that I could wish to obliterate, till I 
am bid to revive them. But experience, alas ! sadly 
reminds me how impossible this is, and evinces an 
opinion which I have long entertained, that there is a 
Destiny which has the control of our actions, not to be 
resisted by the strongest efforts of Human Nature. 

** You have drawn me, dear Madame, or rather I have 
drawn myself, into an honest confession of a simple 
Fact. Misconstrue not my meaning ; doubt it not, nor 
expose it." 

When the army finally started, Washington 
begged the privilege of being in the lead. He 
had differences of opinion with his superior offi- 
cers, and he pressed his ideas to the end. Their 
most serious difference was about the route. 
Bouquet wished to build a new road through 
Pennsylvania, as Lord Loudoun had decided to 
do before his recall. Washington wished to use 
Braddock's old road. 



THE VIRGINIA COMMANDER 8/ 

His own view of his motives is thus stated by 
him. " I am uninfluenced by prejudice, having 
no hopes or fears but for the public good." It 
was charged at this time that Virginia sought to 
have the only road to the Ohio for commercial 
advantages. In a letter of the times was this 
sentence : — 

" The Virginians are much chagrined at the opening 
of the road through this government, and Colonel Wash- 
ington has been a good deal sanguine and obstinate 
upon the occasion." 

Certainly Washington's language, considering 
the fair arguments against him, and the ultimate 
outcome, was not remarkable for moderation. It 
was his opinion, after his advice was rejected, 
that " nothing but a miracle " could procure suc- 
cess. However, no miracle appeared, and success 
came. Forbes wrote from Shippensburg, Sep- 
tember 4th, to Bouquet, who was in the camp at 
Rays Town : — 

" I am afraid our army will not admit of a division, 
lest one-half meets with a check ; therefore I would 
consult Colonel Washington, though perhaps not follow 
his advice, as his behaviour about the roads was noways 
like a soldier." 

Of course that language is too strong, but it is 
well to notice the young Colonel's insistent desire 
to have his own way. It was thoroughly a part 
of his character. 



SS GEORGE WASHINGTON 

As a fact, the fort was abandoned without a 
struggle, partly from the desertion of French 
Indians, one of the many things Forbes hoped to 
accomplish by delay. In Washington's favor it 
is to be said, nevertheless, that, a few days before, 
a council of war had determined that the enter- 
prise would have to be delayed a year, when they 
accidentally learned from prisoners how weakly 
the fort was defended, and pushed on, to find 
it had been burned at night, while the French 
escaped down the Ohio. 

Washington proceeded to Mount Vernon, 
stopped to see Mrs. Custis, set the date of his 
marriage a few weeks ahead, and then laid down 
the command of the Virginia forces. 

With this series of Indian wars in mind, it is 
partly amusing and partly impressive to read, in 
the works of Theodore Parker, that the New 
York Indians hold this tradition of Washington. 
" Alone of all white men," say they, " he has been 
admitted to the Indian Heaven, because of his 
justice to the Red Men. He lives in a great 
palace, built like a fort. All the Indians, as they 
go to Heaven, pass by, and he himself is in his 
uniform, a sword at his side, walking to and fro. 
They bow reverently with great humility. He 
returns the salute, but says nothing." 



CHAPTER VI 

A DOZEN YEARS OF CALM 

" The morning was clear and fine but soon clouded and promised 
much Rain or other falling weather wch. is generally the case after 
remarkable white Frosts, as it was to-day." 

''A very remarkable Circle round the Moon — another Indication 
of falling weather." 

" No frost last night and the ground vastly rotten — " 

"Wind at No. West & very boisterous." 

'' The Wind at No. West, weather clear, somewhat cold and dry- 
ing. Moon at its first rising remarkably red." 

— Washington's Notes. 

In January, 1759, there was a certain gathering 
in honor of which historians have loved to display 
much eloquence. Unhappily the bases for the 
graphic and entertaining descriptions of Washing- 
ton's marriage are composed of floating stories, 
and these traditions contradict one another. Cer- 
tainly the assemblage was brilliant, and the mar- 
riage doubtless took place either in the little church 
of St. Peter, or a few miles from it, in the White 
House, as the home of Mrs. Martha Custis, on the 
Pamunkey River, in New Kent County, was 
called. The governor, in full dress of scarlet and 
gold, was doubtless but one of many representa- 

89 



90 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 



tives of what was most prosperous 2 erior 

in Virginia society. The ceremonies . con- 

ducted by Rev. Peter Mossum, w4io had married 
Daniel Parke Custis, and the bride was the same 
who had filled the role on the former occasion. 
She is reported to have been dressed in white 
satin and silk, with diamond buckles, point lace 
rufBes, and various ornaments of pearl. She 
was assuredly the owner of two children, a daugh- 
ter of six and a son of four, and we may believe 
that these little people were present, and that 
various bridesmaids followed her to the altar. 
The groom w^as over six feet high, and so heavily 
built that, although without superfluous flesh, 
he weighed two hundred pounds. Like his bride, 
he was twenty-six years old, his heavy features 
were reddened by the sun, and under his dark 
brown hair shone two eyes of grayish blue, calm, 
half sad, often nearly vacant, but capable of 
shooting fire. This formidable gentleman was 
arrayed in a coat of blue cloth, lined with red silk 
and adorned with silver trimmings, a white satin 
waistcoat, knickerbockers and shoes with buckles 
of gold, powdered hair, and a straight dress sword. 
When we remember that Jefferson has called him 
the best horseman of his age, we may believe that 
he made a fine figure altogether, whether or not 
he rode on a decorated horse, accompanied by 
various gentlemen, by the side of a coach and 



A DOZEN YEARS OF CALM 91 

six contained his newly acquired bride. 

Wii.-.^ver the details, and whatever our desire to 
see the caravan sparkling in the sun, we may 
have a comforting faith that the splendors of the 
lady and the dignity of the groom were adequately 
framed in a picture of much glitter and due 
solemnity. 

As Martha Custis Washington was no business 
w^oman, her new husband, wiio was made by the 
marriage one of the wealthiest men in Virginia, 
spent several months at the White House putting 
the family affairs in order, after which he trans- 
ported his wife and her progeny to Mount Vernon, 
where they lived happily ever after. As she 
destroyed all but two of the letters that passed 
between them, posterity knows little beyond the 
fact that they were congenial and serene : he a 
considerate and magnanimous husband, she an 
affectionate, dependent, and unenlightened house- 
wife, who shared none of her master s higher prob- 
lems, but was heartily with him in his love of 
social pastimes, stately courtesies, and country 
life. 

Washington took his seat in the Virginia legis- 
lature and held it constantly, but, as there were no 
matters of absorbing interest before it, his more 
significant doings were at hom.e. There, as a 
planter, sportsman, husband, guardian, and social 
country gentleman, he led a life of happiness, 



92 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

unseasoned by the delights of danger and success, 
but also untainted by discouragement and resent- 
ment. He worked hard, and even with the closest 
attention to every detail his fortunes did not 
improve. The price of tobacco, the staple, was 
falling, there was no rotation of crops, little was 
known in Virginia about farming, and slaves were 
laborers who cost the same in busy and in idle 
months. Sunday, February 24th, 1760, he noted 
in his diary that he was unprovided for a demand 
of ninety pounds on a note, but promised to pay 
at the next April court. Although cash was so 
scarce, he said that his " aversion to running in 
debt " would secure him against overdrawing his 
credit with the agents who sold his tobacco 
" unless a manifest advantage is likely to be the 
result of it," in which emergency he urged them 
to be lenient and untroubled. A friend wished 
to borrow four hundred pounds. Washington 
wrote with cordiality that he would like to lend 
him twice the sum, "But," he added, "human 
affairs are always checquered, and vicissitudes in 
this life are rather to be expected than wondered 
at." The various estates of which he now had the 
management answered his description of one of 
them, that it was " of a kind that rather comes 
under the denomination of a large than a profit- 
able one," the land being " much worn," so that 
large crops could not be raised. His energies 



A DOZEN YEARS OF CALM 93 

were bent, therefore, to making every detail eco- 
nomical. He would sometimes sit at home and 
figure all day on the various aspects of his affairs, 
and he kept all his books himself. He killed 
hogs, looked after the breeding of dogs and 
horses, sheared sheep, anointing his hounds when 
they were diseased, and fished industriously, not 
for pleasure, but for profit, making careful notes 
about the best wind and weather conditions for 
successful seining, and giving up a journey because 
he was " engaged in fishing and other matters 
which seems I think to require my attendance." 
He observed the weather with extreme minute- 
ness. He urged frugality and economy every- 
where. He saw himself to the building of a 
goose-pen, to cleaning and threshing his wheat, 
to caring for a horse with a broken leg, to build- 
ing a smith's shop, and he carefully noted how 
long it took his mill to grind a bushel of corn. 
He mentioned two ploughs which he made himself. 
" Spent the greatest part of the day in making a 
new plow of my own invention." " Made another 
plow the same as my former, excepting that it has 
two eyes and the other one." His reading, what 
little he did, harmonized with his preoccupation 
with primitive necessities. He sent abroad for 
books on agriculture, suggesting those of which 
he had heard, including " A New System of Agri- 
culture, or a Speedy Way to Grow Rich," but tell- 



94 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

ing his agents to send others if they were " in 
higher esteem." That his agricultural pursuits 
were not without an occasional dramatic incident 
is shown by his notes about an oyster man who 
stopped at his landing and " plagued him a good 
deal by his disorderly behavior." Washington 
" in the most peremptory manner " ordered him 
away, but the man persisted nevertheless, and 
departed in the morning. Sparks tells a story 
about a poacher, whose gun was heard by Wash- 
ington. Mounting a horse and riding toward the 
sound, the proprietor found the intruder in a 
canoe, a few yards from the banks of a creek. 
The poacher raised, cocked and aimed his musket. 
Washington, undaunted, rode into the creek, seized 
the canoe, drew it to land, and there fitly chastised 
the culprit. That bodily punishment was a cor- 
rective which the retired warrior felt perfectly com- 
petent to administer is shown by this passage in 
a letter to the Major George Muse who has al- 
ready appeared to disadvantage in this story : — 

" Your impertinent letter was delivered to me yester- 
day. As I am not accustomed to receive such from any 
man, nor would I have taken the same language from 
you personally, without letting you feel some marks 
of my resentment, I would advise you to be cautious in 
writing me a second of the same tenor." 

The slaves, who did most of his work, really 
had no great cause to love their master. To 



A DOZEN YEARS OF CALM 95 

them the owner was never cruel, nor was he ever 
generous. When Charles Remond, the eloquent 
colored orator, called George Washington a vil- 
lain, because he held slaves, Wendell Phillips 
replied, " Charles, the epithet is infelicitous." He 
was less than most planters subject to Dr. John- 
son's taunt : " How is it that we hear the loudest 
yelps for liberty from the drivers of negroes ? " 
Nor must we forget the difference in the times. 
To our minds it looks rather odd to see such an 
entry as, "Sett Kate and Doll to heaping the dung 
about the stable," but in all probability Kate and 
Doll sang at their occupation. When they were 
ill, he would have the doctor summoned when 
there was a prospect of cure, but in the last stages 
of a complaint it was " incurring an expense for 
nothing." In giving Washington's attitude toward 
these people, I shall take the incidents and opin- 
ions mainly from the last years of his life, since 
the facts are unpleasant enough, even when his 
conscience had reached its most sensitive state 
about them. If any negro attempted to keep 
a dog, he was to be severely punished, and 
the dog hanged, — for fear of injury to sheep 
and hogs. 

" It is observed, by the weekly reports, that the sew- 
ers make only six shirts a week, and the last week Carolina 
(without being sick) made only five. Mrs. Washington 
says their usual task was to make nine with shoulder 



96 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

straps and good sewing. Tell them therefore from me 
that what Jias been done sJiall be done by fair or foul 
means." 

Toward the end of his Hfe he decided neither to 
buy nor to sell, but he yielded to inconvenience 
when he was badly in want of a cook. His ne- 
groes were apparently fed as much as they needed, 
but not as much as they desired. 

*' It is not my wish, or desire, that my negros should 
have an oz. of meal more, nor less, than is sufficient to 
feed them plentifully." 

" In most explicit language I desire they may have 
plenty ; for I will not have my feelings again hurt with 
complaints of this sort, nor lye under the imputation of 
starving my negros." 

How that imputation existed is shown in the 
remarks of Richard Parkinson, a captious, unrea- 
sonable, and ill-informed Englishman, who made 
a tour of America just before Washington's death, 
and has kept, and probably heightened, some of 
the neighboring gossip : — 

" There is a remark frequently made of the General's 
exposing his old white horse to sale which he rode dur- 
ing the war ; which shows that he treated every creature 
according to its nature — a horse as a horse, a negro as 
a negro." 

** Only take General Washington for an example : I 
have not the least reason to think it was his desire, but 
the necessity of the case : but it was the sense of all his 
neighbours that he treated them with more severity than 
any other man. He regularly delivered weekly to every 



A DOZEN YEARS OF CALM 97 

working negro two or three pounds of pork, and some 
salt herrings, often badly cured, and a small portion of 
Indian corn." 

" The first time I walked with General Washington 
among his negroes, when he spoke to them, he amazed 
me by the utterance of his words. He spoke as differ- 
ently as if he had been quite another man, or had been 
in, anger." 

''General Washington weighed the food for all his 
negroes young and old. ... It is said that he never 
clothed them until they were of a certain age." 

The extent to which Washington would go to 
recover his negroes is neatly contrasted with his 
sense of the importance of public morality, espe- 
cially " north of Virginia," in the two following 
extracts : — 

" It is highly probable Paul has left the parts (by 
water or land). If Mr. Dulany is disposed to pursue 
any measure for the purpose of recovering /as man, I 
will join him in the expence so far as it may respect 
Paul; — but I would not have my name appear in any 
advertisement, or other measure, leading to it." 

'' I had no other objection to the advertising of Paul 
than that of having my name appear therein ; — at hast 
ill any papers NortJi of Virginia ; ^ and that he has not 
gone South of it is natural to infer, if he was governed 
by motives of policy, or by advice." 

This was shortly before he died. Such read- 
ing is not delightful to our contemporary sense ; 
but one of the virtues of the present taste in his- 
tory and politics is the desire to make our ideals 

1 The italics are mine, 

H 



98 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

not out of fiction, but out of grounded truth. 
That Washington could not tell a lie we no 
lonsrer believe. That he would advertise for a 
runaway slave if his proceeding were not to be 
known north of Virginia, we know. He was not 
a Quixote : few great men are. He was not even 
a beautiful or imaginative soul. His feet were 
always on the earth. Looking the facts of human 
nature fairly in the face, we get a better encourage- 
ment from men of inspiring lives, among whom 
Washington is perhaps the highest modern hero. 
Mr. Gladstone was inclined to put him first among 
the public men of ail time. When Louis Philippe^ 
was an exile in America, he was a guest at Mount 
Vernon. Noticing his host's voluminous corre- 
spondence, the exile asked the retired leader 
whether he did not fear that some of his words 
or deeds would come up in judgment against him 
when the historian was making up the estimate 
of his career. General Washington answered 
that he had never said anything or written any- 
thing which he cared to recall, nor had ever done 
anything which he regretted. It was a strange 
statement to be able to make, after years of war 
and years of statesmanship ; and yet, even in the 
face of relentless modern criticism, it still wears 
the face of truth.^ 

1 For this story I am indebted to the Honorable Chauncey M. Depew, 
who had it from the king's son, the Due d'Aumale, 



A DOZEN YEARS OF CALM 99 

Washington was not an intimate nature. To a 
romantic imagination he will seem unreal. With 
such a character, charming and intricate relations 
of sympathy would be as impossible as they would 
with a glacier. It was a pregnant sentence that 
he wrote, " I will never again have two women 
in my house when I am there myself." It goes 
with the singular ingenuousness of his occasional 
advice where the sentimental emotions were con- 
cerned. Take this, wTitten at a later period, to 
Eleanor Custis : — 

" Love is said to be an involuntary passion, and it is, 
therefore, contended that it cannot be resisted. This is 
true in part only, for like all things else, when nourished 
and supplied plentifully with aliment, it is rapid in its 
progress ; but let these be withdrawn and it may be 
stifled in its birth or much stinted in its growth." 

'' The declaration, without the most ijidirect invita- 
tion of yours, must proceed from the man to render 
it pern;anent and valuable, and nothing short of good 
sense and an easy, unaffected conduct can draw the line 
between prudery and coquetry. It would be no great 
departure from truth to say that it rarely happens other- 
wise than that a thorough-paced coquette dies in celi- 
bacy, as a punishment for her attempts to mislead 
others by encouraging looks, words, or actions, given 
for no other purpose than to draw men on to make 
overtures that they may be rejected." 

His existence during these retired years was 
relieved by the various activities of a solemn 
spirit which loved the light of play. He was not 
L.ofC. 



100 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

a good hunter, but he spent many hours a week 
in pursuit of hare, deer, ducks, and especially foxes, 
the last being fashionable victims which were usu- 
ally pursued in company with some members of 
the Fairfax family. He played cards, for nominal 
stakes, was addicted to nuts and candy, which 
helped him to an 'early set of false teeth, which 
caused the expression of his mouth with which his 
portraits make us familiar, and he kept himself 
supplied with claret, cider, madeira, porter, and 
rhenish, and he went to the theatre when in 
Alexandria, often three or four nights running. 
He went to the races, and balls were a favorite 
diversion. When at home, without company, and 
not at work, he seems to have been lonely, having 
no imaginative resources. That these long coun- 
try evenings never tempted him to supply the 
deficiencies of his early education is another 
proof that his mind was occupied solely with the 
simplest concerns of man. His general tone in 
company was grave, his conversation pedestrian, 
his attempts at social lightness heavy. When he 
enunciated a general truth, he usually repeated it 
in several letters. " Time only can reveal it," was 
a favorite. " You must give me leave to say that 
it is works and not words that people will judge 
from, and where one man deceives another from 
time to time, his word being disregarded, all con- 
fidence is lost." He was neither very philosophi- 



A DOZEN YEARS OF CALM lOI 

cal nor very religious, but a man who dealt with 
phenomena in front of him, and went decently to 
church. Serious references to the Deity in his 
letters wTre at this period scarce and conven- 
tional. His religion was part of his sense of pro- 
priety. Probably he did not then, even in his 
own mind, question any of the tenets of the 
church ; but they were not the springs of his life. 
In. an age when, as he himself noted, there was 
some feeling against lotteries, he indulged in them 
freely. He took religion much as he did ceremony 
and manners, — from the most elegant traditions 
of the neighborhood. 

Toward elegance and fashion, indeed, he showed 
an almost touching modesty. Like other planters 
of the time, he imported most of his goods, and 
he frequently ordered specific makes with the pro- 
viso that others should take their place if style 
were against him. " Fashionable " and " most 
fashionable " preceded orders for every conceiva- 
ble article, from china to tape, and from wearing 
apparel to a doll for the little Patsy Custis. On 
his chariot he would be glad to have green, but 
in that he " would be governed by fashion." Inci- 
dentally the orders for wearing apparel gave some 
hints at the structure of his body, " my stature is 
six feet ; otherwise rather slender than corpulent." 

The thoroughly canny side of the honest hus- 
bandman is to be seen in his land speculations 



I02 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

on the Ohio, in North CaroHna, Virginia, Pennsyl- 
vania, and in Florida, which at this period keenly 
interested him, although he looked upon them as 
so uncertain that he compared them to lottery 
tickets. Of some of the western land that was in 
dispute he wrote : — 

" What inducements have men to explore uninhabited 
wilds, but the prospect of getting good lands ? Would 
any man waste his time, expose his fortune, nay life, in 
such a search, if he was to share the good and the bad 
with those that come after him ? Surely not." 

*' All which may be avoided by a silettt viaiiagement 
and the {operation) snugly carried on by yon under the 
guise of Jiunting other gameT 

Just as in his career as a youthful soldier he 
had been impartially keen about the interest of 
himself, his neighbors, and the public, so now, 
while he was alert to secure for himself, with all 
necessary secrecy, a slice of the rich wilderness, 
he was at the same time working assiduously for 
others. Labor and expense alike he endured to 
secure to the soldiers the land which the legisla- 
ture had promised them. Sympathy with his 
sick friends he always had, and he himself knew 
much of illness. One commodity which he be- 
stowed upon his neighbors with some profusion 
was advice. He laid down a rule against it, but 
he was sometimes more addicted to creating 
than to obeying maxims. In the Indian wars he 



A DOZEN YEARS OF CALM IO3 

had been frank in advising his superiors. To a 
debtor with whom he went fox-hunting every few 
days he could, in refusing a new loan, write masses 
of wisdom in favor of retrenchment. To a mer- 
chant, wdio was also a friend, he volunteered a 
warning about importation and prices. He clearly 
observed the frailties of man, not excluding him- 
self. On one day he noted in his diary : " Doc- 
tor Laurie came here. I may add drunk." On 
another: "Visited my Plantations and received 
an Instance of Mr. French's great Love of money 
in disappointing me of some Pork because the 
price had risen to 22/6, after he had engaged 
to let me have it at 20/." On a third he directed 
an indictment for fraud to be brought against a 
man who had sold him some iron. Again he 
noticed that a friend of his " obliquely hinted " 
his willingness to make a certain sale. The "shuf- 
fling behavior " of a party to a business negotia- 
tion convinced Washington that he was a "trifling 
body," and a few days later he decided that the 
same man was " nothing less than a thorough 
pac'd rascall." He observed in himself, as the 
cause of delay in correspondence, " a mixture of 
bad health and indolence," the latter doubtless 
a euphemism for disinclination to write social 
letters : — 

" Richard Stephens hard at work with an ax. Very 
extraordinary this ! " 



• 



104 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

"Visited my Plantation and found to my great sur- 
prise Stephen constantly at work." 

His relations to his immediate family showed 
Washington in the most touching light of any- 
thing in his history, for there the strong man was 
all tenderness, and the masterful spirit all compli- 
ance. To his mother, indeed, he seems to have 
shown little more than conventional respect, but 
to his wife and her children he was devoted. Poor 
Patsy Custis had fits, and when she died suddenly 
in one of them, Washington's sympathy with the 
mother was tender. 

" It is an easier matter to conceive than to describe 
the distress of this Family; especially that of the un- 
happy Parent of our Dear Patsy Custis, when I inform 
you that yesterday removed the Sweet Innocent Girl 
Entered into a more happy & peaceful abode than any 
she has met with in the afflicted Path she hitherto has 
trod. . . . 

" This sudden and unexpected blow, I scarce need 
add, has reduced my poor wife to the lowest ebb of 
Misery." 

The sacrifice involved in wedlock he took 
cheerfully. 

" The longing desire, which for many years I have 
had of visiting the great Matrapolis of that Kingdom, is 
not in the least abated . . . but I am now tied by the 
Leg and must set inclination aside ... I am now I 
believe fixed at this seat with an agreeable Consort for 
Life. And hope to find more happiness in retirement 



A DOZEN YEARS OF CALM I05 

than I ever experienced amidst a wide and bustling 
World." 

Valuing opportunities for travel, and setting 
store by a kind of knowledge which he had no ten- 
dency to acquire, he took the most intense inter- 
est in the education of young John Parke Custis. 
This lad began with promise, but soon fell away. 
Washington, therefore, requested of his instructor 
the closest supervision of the young man's habits 
and companions. He urged French as "a part of 
polite education," and to a man w^ho was to mix 
in a large circle absolutely necessary. Without 
arithmetic the common affairs of life, he thought, 
were not to be managed. Geometry and the higher 
mathematics within limits were equally useful. He 
naturally spoke of the advantages of surveying. 
Philosophy, moral and natural, he thought " a 
very desirable knowledge for a gentleman." Of 
the advantages of Greek he did not pretend to 
judge. Some of his friends were strongly against 
Custis's going to England, fearing the risk to this 
last member of the family. Washington was un- 
convinced, but hesitated, " Not that I think his 
becoming a mere scholar is a desirable education 
for a gentleman, but I conceive a knowledge of 
books is the basis upon which other knowledge 
is to be built, and that it is men and things more 
than books he is to be acquainted with by travel- 
ling." A still more touching interest in education 



I06 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

was shown in his offer of ^25 a year to keep the 
son of a friend in college. In all his acts, in this 
interval, just before the greatest test of his life, 
we see a noble soul in the man of deeds living the 
life of nature, with a wistful look now and then 
toward the forbidden world of learning and imagi- 
nation — on the whole happy in domestic har- 
mony, in days filled with work useful for character 
and body, and in a conviction that every year he 
spent was filled with good, and free from evil. 
When public effort was demanded, he could covet 
honor; but he would have been equally able, a 
virtuous farmer, to live and die studying the crops 
and the weather, caring for his family, and taking 
an unflagging part in the business concerns of the 
neighborhood. A fiery warrior in battle he was 
in his field the devoted husbandman, filling long 
days with the thousand interests of the farm. 
As in other years nothing should prove too large 
for him, so now no useful duty was too small. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE POLITICAL CRISIS 

"Those fathers accomplished the Revolution on a strict ques- 
tion of principle. The Parliament of Great Britain asserted a right 
to tax the Colonies in all cases whatsoever ; and it was precisely on 
this question that they made the Revolution turn. The amount of 
taxation was trifling, but the claim itself was inconsistent with lib- 
erty ; and that was, in their eyes, enough. It was against the recital 
of an act of Parliament, rather than against any suffering under its 
enactments, that they took up arms. They went to war against a 
4)reamble. They fought seven years against a declaration. They 
poured out their treasures and their blood like water, in a contest 
against an assertion which those less sagacious and not so w^ell 
schooled in the principles of civil liberty would have regarded as 
barren phraseology, or mere parade of words. They saw in the claim 
of the British Parliament a seminal principle of mischief, the germ 
of unjust power ; they detected it, dragged it forth from underneath 
its plausible disguises, struck at it ; nor did it elude either their 
steady eye or their well-directed blow till they had extirpated and 
destroyed it, to the smallest fibre. On this question of princi- 
ple, while actual suffering was yet afar off, they raised their flag 
against a power, to which, for purposes of foreign conquest and sub- 
jugation, Rome, in the height of her glory, is not to be compared ; 
a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with 
her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, fol- 
lowing the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the 
earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of 
England.'' — Daniel Webster. 

While Washington was farming at Mount 
Vernon, he had enough contact with the pohtical 

107 



I08 GEORGE WASHINGTON 



world to keep his mind on the developing issues. 
When he first took his seat in the Virginia Assem- 
bly, he was so embarrassed, according to Edmund 
Randolph, that while he was blushing and stam- 
mering in an attempt to acknowledge his enthusi- 
astic reception, the speaker relieved him by saying : 
" Sit down, Mr. Washington. Your modesty is 
equal to your valor, and that sui*passes the power 
of any language that I possess." His general 
popularity, rather than any political activity, 
caused him to be regularly elected by large 
majorities. Although his interest was not keen, 
his conscience kept him in regular attendance, 
and he postponed a trip to Ohio and other pri- 
vate objects. He maintained social relations 
with many men versed in political thought, the 
most intimate being the radical George Mason 
and the conservative Fairfax family, so that he 
heard both sides. On a trip to New York we 
find him dining with General Gage, and the 
imagination can hardly avoid looking ahead to 
the measurement of power between him and his 
old associates in arms. In the Assembly, for long 
stretches of time, private bills were the main con- 
cern, and these sessions were necessarily dull. 
Even the news from the French wars brought 
out little comment from Washington. 

In 1765, however, there were bigger things 
than French and Indian wars on the horizon. 



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George Washington as Colonel of 22d Virginia Militia 



From the portrait at Washington and Lee University. Painted in May, 1772, by 

C. W. Peak. 



THE POLITICAL CRISIS lOQ 

Washington's attitude toward the tax on tea, 
paper, glass, and other articles was thus expressed 
in a letter dated April 5th, 1769, to George Mason, 
who afterw . "d drafted the first Constitution of 
Virginia, and was a warm advocate of state rights. 

'' That no man should scruple, or hesitate a moment, 
to use a — ms in defence of so valuable a blessing, on 
which all the good and evil of life depends, is clearly 
my opinion. Yet a — ms I would beg leave to add, 
should be the last resource, the dernier resort .'' 

He had taken equally decided ground the pre- 
ceding year, as shown by a letter to him, dated 
Berlin, June 15th, 1777. 

" I never forgot your declaration, when I had last the 
pleasure of being at your house in 1768, that you were 
ready to take your musket upon your shoulder whenever 
your country called upon you." 

On the constitutional question of the right of 
taxation Washington's views were by no means 
equal in adequacy to those of some of his legal- 
minded neighbors. Most of the leaders at this 
period were lawyers, many of them distinguished 
in a kind of thinking which lay beyond Wash- 
ington. He was not among those Americans 
who might justify Burke's statement that the 
study of law had made them acute, inquisitive, 
dexterous, full of resources. His arguments were 
very elementary, truly, compared to the reasoning 
which was used on both sides of the Atlantic in 



no GEORGE WASHINGTON 

these critical years. Washington discussed more 
ably the probable working of schemes than the 
foundation of claims. He was accustomed to 
study faithfully the argumentative productions of 
the time, in spite of his being a follower rather 
than a leader. His practical attitude was not with- 
out its historical justification. The historian 
Robertson represented much plain sense, when, 
soon after this time, he asserted that the dis- 
tinction between taxation and regulation was mere 
folly. The whole argument about the right of 
Parliament to tax the colonies was one of those 
cloaks for real issues that are needed by logical 
minds. The important things w^ere, what the colo- 
nies desired, and how much they were willing lo 
do to get it. In such fundamentals lay Washing- 
ton's strength. The probabilities of separation 
had been noticed by political prophets for almost 
half a century. It was Washington's nature to see 
such inevitable tendencies more clearly than he 
saw the reasons for them ; to see also whether they 
were right or wrong, without knowing, or imagin- 
ing he knew, how to state analytically in what 
right and wrong consisted. Even now, before the 
heaviest responsibilities of his life had begun, it 
was his custom not to be in complete accord 
with any proposition until it had rested for some 
time in his mind; but every year the arguments 
between the rebellious and the conservative mem- 



THE POLITICAL CRISIS III 

bers of his community left him more in accord 
with the cautious branch of the radicals. Of 
Washington's demeanor at this time Jefferson 
wrote in his autobiography : — 

** I served with General Washington in the legislature 
of Virginia before the revolution, and, during it, with 
Dr. Franklin in Congress. I never heard either of them 
speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main 
point which was to decide the question. They laid their 
shoulders to the great points, knowing that the little ones 
would follow of themselves." 

Washington's opinions at this stage have been 
preserved in full in a letter of July 4th, 1774, to 
Bryan Fairfax, whose aristocratic origin naturally 
made him a royalist, and whose honest, cultivated, 
and logical mind was unable to see the cogency 
of the radical reasoning. He tried to draw from 
Washington historical and technical arguments, 
and succeeded only in eliciting practical ones. 
The debate, however, was courteous on both sides, 
and even in the midst of the Revolution Wash- 
ington wrote to Fairfax,^ " The difference in our 
political sentiments never made any difference in 
my friendship for you." 

Washington was present when the Virginia 
Assembly met on August ist, and made an ex- 

1 September 24th, 1777, from camp near Pottsville, from a copy lent 
me by Mrs. Burton Harrison, who generously allowed me to make free use 
of her material. 



112 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

port as well as an import agreement. By this 
time his feelings were very strong. 

" Colonel Washington made the most eloquent speech 
at the Virginia Convention that ever was made. Says 
he, * I will raise one thousand men, subsist them at my 
own expense, and march myself at their head for the 
relief of Boston.' " ^ 

He felt that his freedom was interfered with, 
and he accepted the arguments from brains more 
forensic than his own. 

The convention, on the 5th of August, elected, 
as delegates to the first Continental Congress 
Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George 
Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Ben- 
jamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton. 

The first Continental Congress was called for 
September 5th. Patrick Henry and Edmund 
Pendleton stopped at Mount Vernon on their 
way, and passed the night. There is a story that 
Mrs. Washington said to Pendleton and Henry: 
" I hope you will all stand firm. I know George 
will." The three Virginians proceeded, the next 
day, to Philadelphia, where a petition to the king 
was drawn up, as well as addresses to the inhabit- 
ants of Quebec and the people of Great Britain, 
and a memorial to the inhabitants of the British 
Colonies. Washington had experienced scruples, 
about a non-exportation agreement but they had 

1 John Adams's diary, August 31st, 1774, quoting Lynch. 



THE POLITICAL CRISIS II3 

vanished, as might be guessed from the unanimity 
of the last Virginia association, covering exports 
as well as imports, even had John Adams not left 
this letter: — 

" The other delegates from Virginia returned to their 
State in full confidence that all our grievances must be 
redressed. . . . 

" Washington only was in doubt. He never spoke in 
public. In private he joined with those who advocated 
a non-exportation as well as a non-importation agreement. 
With both he thought we should prevail. With either, 
he thought it doubtful. Henry was clear in one opin- 
ion, Richard Henry Lee in an opposite opinion, and 
Washington doubted between the two. Henry, however, 
appeared in the end to be exactly in the right." 

Silas Deane wrote to his wife : — 

" Col. Washington is nearly as tall a man as Col. Fitch 
and almost as hard a countenance ; yet with a very young 
look and an easy soldier-like air and gesture. He does 
not appear above forty-five, yet was in the first action in 
1753 and 1754, on the Ohio, and in 1755 was with Brad- 
dock, and was the means of saving the remains of that 
unfortunate army. It is said that in the House of Bur- 
gesses in Virginia, on hearing of the Boston Port Bill, 
he offered to raise and arm and lead one thousand men 
at his own expense, for the defence of the country, were 
there need of it. His fortune is said to be equal to such 
an undertaking." 

A story of the time ran thus : — 

'' Mr. Henry, on his return home, being asked, * Who 
is the greatest man in Congress ? ' replied, ' If you speak 



114 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, is by far 
the greatest orator ; but if you speak of solid informa- 
tion and sound judgment. Colonel Washington is unques- 
tionably the greatest man on that floor.' " 

One who was present at Philadelphia, but 
whose information may nevertheless be doubted, 
wrote that he heard that Colonel Washington 
had said, " he wished to God the Liberties of 
America were to be determined by a single Com- 
bat between himself and George." He was, how- 
ever, now prepared to say : " More blood will be 
spilled on this occasion, if the ministry are deter- 
mined to push matters to extremity, than history 
has ever yet furfiished iiistances of in the annals 
of North America." He endeavored to conduct 
the affairs of his farm, but the times were sweep- 
ing him along. Asked by several independent 
companies to take command of them, he con- 
sented. He voted to enroll the Virginia militia 
and to pay a tax for equipment. 

Meantime, the government of Great Britain 
was confronted with no easy question. As a 
response to the preparation of militia, ready to 
serve at a moment's notice, and hence called min- 
ute-men, a royal proclamation forbade exporta- 
tion to the colonies of arms and ammunition. 
Well might the great Frederick say : " En fin. 
Messieurs, je ne comprends pas ces choses la ; je 
n ai point de colonic ; j espere que vous vous tire- 



THE POLITICAL CRISIS II5 

rez bien de I'affalre ; mais elle me paroit un peu 
epineuse." It had to be met, however. There 
were now eleven colonies in a position almost as 
extreme as that which Massachusetts had been 
holding alone, — a situation which led to Burke's 
classic declaration that he did not know how 
to draw an indictment against a whole people. 
Chatham, who, so many years before, had shown 
a desire to treat the colonies with consideration, 
and who had been living in retirement, appeared 
in the House of Lords on January 20th, having 
announced in advance a motion on American 
affairs, which caused the bar to be crowded with 
Americans, among them, by Chatham's invitation, 
Benjamin Franklin. With Lexington and Con- 
cord yet to come, the British orator said : — 

" For myself, I must declare that in all my reading 
and observation — and history has been my favorite 
study ; I have read Thucydides, and have studied and 
admired the master States of the world — that for solid- 
ity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of 
conclusion under such a complication of difficult circum- 
stances, no nation or body of men can stand in prefer- 
ence to the General Congress at Philadelphia. All 
attempts to impose servitude on such men, to estabUsh 
despotism over a mighty Continent, must be in vain, 
must be fatal. We shall be forced ultimately to retract ; 
let us retract while we can, not when we must." 

In spite of Chatham's eloquence his motion to 
have Gage's troops removed from Boston was 



Il6 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

heavily defeated. Undaunted, consulting almost 
daily with Franklin, he prepared for a second 
attack. Franklin, whose words do not necessarily 
represent the truth, assured him that never in all 
his travels had he met a single person who fav- 
ored independence. On February ist, Chatham 
offered a bill declaring the general dependence 
of the colonies on the British crown, and the 
power of Parliament to regulate them in all 
matters affecting the general welfare of the 
empire, but also declaring that the crown had no 
right to tax them without their consent. The 
Earl of Sandwich arose, and, looking full at 
Franklin, who was leaning on the bar, said he 
could not believe that such a bill was drawn 
by a British peer, but that it was rather the work 
of some American. 

While one part of intelligent public opinion in 
England was represented by Chatham, Burke, and 
Fox, the ministry had supporters almost equally 
prominent. Dr. Johnson's pamphlet on " Taxa- 
tion No Tyranny " has been laughed at for its 
arrogance, for such terms as " English Superior- 
ity and American Obedience," but it contains 
some real arguments. George III. was firm. He 
wrote to Lord North, February 15th, 1775, that 
he should steadily pursue the " tract " which his 
conscience dictated, and that was the " tract " of 
compulsion. He grew rapidly more exasperated, 



THE POLITICAL CRISIS II7 

and was soon in a mood that Dr. Johnson had 
enjoyed as early as 1769, when he said of the 
Americans, ^ " Sir, they are a race of convicts, 
and ought to be thankful for anything we allowed 
them short of hanging." Johnson also remarked, 
" I am willing to love all mankind, except an 
American^ He called them " Rascals, Robbers, 
Pirates," and said he would " burn and destroy 
them." 

Virginia had approved of the proceedings of 
the first Congress, and had just declared, on the 
motion of Patrick Henry, in favor of a native mili- 
tia, and against foreign troops and taxation for 
their support. Washington, Henry, and Jefferson 
were members of the committee for carrying out 
this programme. It was in defending his motion 
that Henry exclaimed : " We must fight : I repeat 
it. Sir, we must fight ! An appeal to arms and 
the God of hosts is all that is left us ! " During 
the convention Washington wrote to his brother, 
referring to an independent company : — 

*' I . . . shall very cheerfully accept the honor of com- 
manding it, if occasion requires it to be drawn out, as it 
is my full intention to devote my life and fortune in the 
cause we are engaged in, if needful." 

In this convention : — 

"Jefferson was not silent. He argued closely, pro- 
foundly, and warmly. . . . Washington was prominent, 

1 Dr. John Campbell told Boswell this. 



Il8 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

though silent. His looks bespoke a mind absolved in 
meditation on his country's fate ; but a positive concert 
between him and Henry could not have more effectually 
exhibited him to men, than when Henry ridiculed the 
idea of ' peace when there was no peace,' and enlarged 
on the idea of preparing for war." ^ 

On April 17th, 1775, came Lexington and Con- 
cord, and on the day that Ethan Allen demanded 
the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga, " in the name of 
the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress," 
the second Continental Congress met in Phila- 
delphia. Washington's own feelings were ex- 
pressed in a letter in which he spoke of " the 
ministerial troops (for we do not, nor can we yet 
prevail upon ourselves to call them the King's 
troops)," and added, " the Americans will fight 
for their liberties and property." Of the battle, 
he said : — 

" Unhappy it is, though, to reflect, that a brother's 
sword has been sheathed in a brother's breast, and that 
the once happy and peaceful plains of America are 
either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. 
Sad alternative ! But can a virtuous man hesitate in 
his choice ?" 

Washington was obviously prepared for war, 
but not for independence. In this, as in other 
things, he went hand in hand w^ith the more 
cautious leaders in the movement for redress. 
It is surprising to see how much passion could 

1 " Omitted Chapters of American History," Moncure D. Conway, p. 302. 



THE POLITICAL CRISIS II9 

be felt by such a philosopher as Franklin, who 
arrived in Philadelphia just in time to attend this 
second convention, and wrote to a former friend 
in London : — 

" Mr. Strahan : You are a Member of Parliament 
and one of that majority which has doomed my country 
to destruction. You have begun to burn and murder 
our people. Look upon your hands, they are stained 
with the blood of your relations ! You and I were long 
friends ; you are now my enemy, and I am Yours, 

'' Benjamin Franklin." 

Yet Franklin's statement to Chatham about 
the lack of desire for independence was almost 
true. James Otis wrote in 1765: — 

" God forbid these Colonies should ever prove un- 
dutiful to their mother country. Whenever such a day 
shall come, it will be the beginning of a terrible scene. 
Were these colonies left to themselves to-morrow, 
America would be a mere shamble of blood and con- 
fusion before little petty states could be settled." 

It is related that Washington, on his way to this 
Congress, was told by the former tutor of his 
stepson. Rev. Jonathan Boucher, that the path on 
which he was entering might lead to separation ; 
and the story includes a reply by Washington in- 
dicating that he still strongly opposed any such 
idea. 

So highly was Washington considered, that he 
was made chairman of the committee for recom- 



120 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

mending the forts to be occupied in the province 
of New York ; of the committee for devising ways 
and means of procuring ammunition and miHtary 
stores ; the committee for making an estimate of 
the money necessary to be raised, and the com- 
mittee for preparing rules and regulations for the 
government of an army. John Adams wrote to 
his wife from Philadelphia, May 29th : — 

'* Colonel Washington appears at Congress in his uni- 
form, and, by his great experience and abilities in mili- 
tary matters, is of much service to us." 

That Washington should wear uniform was 
natural enough, for, whether or not he had any 
idea of being chosen for the chief command, it 
was already settled in Virginia that he should 
hold first place in the military affairs of that state. 
That he was in a warlike spirit is certain, whether 
or not we may believe the story, printed in a 
London paper of April 15th, 1775, according to 
which it was reported the year before, that Sir 
Jeffrey Amherst had said that with five thousand 
English regulars he would engage to march from 
one end to the other of the continent of North 
America, and that this being spoken of publicly 
in a coffee-house in North America, Colonel 
Washington, who was present, declared, that with 
one thousand Virginians he would engage to stop 
Sir Jeffrey Amherst's march. 



THE POLITICAL CRISIS 121 

John Adams, the ablest member* of the strong 
New England delegation at Philadelphia, was at 
this time heart and soul in the main cause, 
every other consideration being subordinated in 
his mind. James Warren had written to Adams 
on May 7th: — 

" They seem to want a more experienced direction. I 
could for myself wish to see your friends Washington 
and L. at the head of it ; and yet dare not propose it, 
though I have it in contemplation." 

Massachusetts had taken the lead, and the 
South was anxious, particularly Virginia. Adams, 
in his diary, spoke of the southern jealousy of 
a New England army, under the Command of a 
New York general : — 

"Whether this jealousy was sincere, or whether it 
was mere pride and a haughty ambition of furnishing a 
southern General to command the northern army (I 
cannot say) ; but the intention was very visible to me 
that General Washington was their object, and so many 
of our staunchest men were in the plan, that we could 
carry nothing without conceding to it." 

When Adams first suggested him in a speech, 
without referring to him by name, " Mr. Wash- 
ington, who happened to sit near the door, as 
soon as he heard me allude to him, from his 
usual modesty, darted into the library room." 

Elbridge Gerry, then a member of the Provin- 
cial Congress at Watertown, wrote to the Massa- 



122 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

chusetts delegates in the Continental Congress, 
on June 4th : — 

"I should heartily rejoice to see this way the beloved 
Colonel Washington, and do not doubt the New Eng- 
land Generals would acquiesce in showing to our sister 
colony Virginia the respect, which she has before 
experienced from the Continent, in making him Gen- 
eralissimo." 

On June 17th, while Bunker Hill was being 
fought at Boston, John Adams was able to write 
to his wife from Philadelphia : — 

*' I can now inform you, that the Congress have made 
choice of the modest and virtuous, the amiable, gen- 
erous, and brave George Washington, Esquire, to be 
General of the American Army, and that he is to repair, 
as soon as possible, to the camp before Boston. This 
appointment will have a great effect in cementing and 
securing the union of these colonies." 

Many years later he wrote : — 

'* The appointment of General Washington to the 
command in 1775, of an army in Cambridge, consisting 
altogether of New England men, over the head of 
officers of their own flesh and choice, a most hazardous 
step, was another instance of apparent unanimity, and 
real regret in nearly one half." 

Such is history ! Full of good motives, and of 
petty ones, guided not only by msight but by luck, 
the Congress put the country's welfare in the 
hands of a man whose handling of the trust was 
to set a standard for posterity. The little group 



THE POLITICAL CRISIS * 123 

was to prove fallible and human, but it was among 
the most momentous gathering ever formed, and 
its decisions were heavy with consequences. It 
faced an emergency so extreme that the best 
brains in the country strained themselves to meet 
it. In the Congress sat men whose names have 
become immortal ; but of all the steps which Con- 
gress took, none was more fortunate than the 
appointment of George Washington to take com- 
mand of the army assembled at Cambridge. 



CHAPTER VIII 

COMMANDER-IN-CH lEF 

" There is something charming to me in the conduct of Wash- 
ington. A gentleman of one of the first fortunes upon the continent, 
leaving his delicious retirement, his family and friends, sacrific- 
ing his ease, and hazarding all in the cause of his country. His 
views are noble and disinterested. He declared when he accepted 
the mighty trust, that he would lay before us an exact account of 
his expenses, and not accept a shilhng for pay." — John Adams. 

When Washington, on the day following his 
unanimous election, was officially informed of the 
choice, he rose in his place in Congress, and made 
a short speech in which modesty and prudence 
were combined. Looking ahead to possible fail- 
ure, he emphasized his shortcomings, thus assur- 
ing for himself a reputation for humility if he 
should succeed, and avoiding reproach if he should 
fail. " Lest some unlucky event should happen 
unfavourable to my reputation, I beg it may be 
remembered by every gentleman in the room, that 
I this day declare with the utmost sincerity I 
do not think myself equal to the command I am 
honoured with." There can be no doubt that his 
belief that he was not fit for the task was probably 

124 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 125 

strong in certain moods — and he was a man of 
moods. It is related that on the day he received 
his appointment as commander-in-chief he said to 
Patrick Henry, " This day will be the commence- 
ment of the decline of my reputation." Certainly 
he saw that danger, and it made him grave, 
although he knew also the possibility of success, 
and the rewards that would come with it. 

One other position, genuinely magnanimous 
and no less astute, was taken in this model speech. 
Washington was always saving of money in trifles, 
but he never allowed its value to blind him to 
higher prizes. His decision to accept no pay has 
been celebrated by hundreds of writers, from Byron 
down to our day ; but one of them, at least, John 
Adams, changed his view later, and accused 
Washington of having, in this refusal, taken an 
unjustifiable step, by which he won the nation's 
heart more than by his public services. There is 
no doubt that his generosity in large affairs, where 
big money could help his country, was great. 
" As to pay. Sir, I beg leave to assure the Con- 
gress, that as no pecuniary consideration could 
have tempted me to accept this arduous employ- 
ment at the expense of my domestic ease and 
happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from 
it." Doubtless the farmer-soldier could not him- 
self have told the relative values, in his mind, of 
" domestic ease " and warlike glory, but he knew 



126 GEORGE WASHir^TON 

the safe and virtuous stand to take. There are 
many men of that type, but it is not the species 
of which greatness is usually made, which is 
one of the reasons that Washington is unique. 
He was no sophist, as are most men who indulge 
in much declarations about their own motives. 
Power and success never tempted him to retreat 
from what in privacy he saw to be right. Still, 
it would be childish not to see that the repetition 
to various friends of his two ideas — not being 
fit for the command, and being happier at home — 
was done for reasons. Surely policy is clear 
enough in these sentences to his brother: — 

** How far I may succeed is another point ; but this 
I am sure of, that, in the worst event, I shall have the 
consolation of knowing, if I act to the best of my judg- 
ment, that the blame ought to lodge upon the appointers, 
not the appointed, as it was by no means a thing of my 
own seeking, or proceeding from any hint of my friends." 

He was a man of action, and although happy at 
Mount Vernon, if, when the time for action came, 
he had been passed over, it would have given him 
no joy. War had first attracted him. That the 
arrival of a crisis stirred his appetite there can 
be no doubt. Lecky calls him " equally free from 
the passions that spring from interest and from 
the passions that spring from imagination." So 
he was. But, free from the passions of interest, he 
was well stored with legitimate ambition, and he 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 12/ 

was no man to take such an opportunity with 
unmixed sorrow. The double point of view that 
existed in him is covered in the sentences of a 
man who did not love him. " His passions," says 
Jefferson, "were naturally strong; but his reason, 
generally, stronger." In nearly all he did, and in 
most of what he said, the dictator was his reason. 

It was this combination of a passionate nature, 
including an aggressive, dominating will, with an 
intensely just and ethical spirit, that made it pos- 
sible for him to have one of the rarest and great- 
est of his qualities, — " the unequalled dignity of 
his presence." Pickering, who knew him and 
freely criticised him, said that this dignity inspired 
in all who approached him a degree of reverential 
respect not felt for other men. It was this bal- 
ance of human elements, under the rule of the 
highest, that led Erskine to declare Washington 
the only human being for whom he ever felt " an 
awful reverence." The eulogies of him are full 
of immortal tributes to the worth of blood and 
judgment well commingled. Perhaps it is largely 
because, although passionate, he was not passion's 
slave that the world has worn him in its heart s 
core. 

With such a character, and without genius, 
he needed occasion to show his worth. It was 
common to say that events made him, a comment 
which suggests a dilemma where none exists. 



128 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Without great events Washington would not 
have been famous, and, on the other hand, he 
made events great by his abiHty in meeting them. 
It does not follow because a man is of the type 
that waits for occasions that he does less to mould 
history. Goldwin Smith has well said that Wash- 
ington's wisdom was that of judgment rather than 
of forecast. He did not like to guess, nor was he 
gifted in surmise. Jefferson, with Washington's 
waiting intellectual nature in mind, spoke of " such 
an approbation of it as he usually permitted him- 
self on the first presentation of any idea." This 
mental reserve was applied to the large, complex 
set of facts which compose any public question ; 
but it was mixed with traits which had shown in 
the daring boy commander, in the early battles 
in the wilderness, and in the aide-de-camp whose 
reckless courage had so impressed the Indians. 
He was, as Fisher Ames admirably said, "fearless 
of dangers that were personal to him, hesitating 
and cautious w^hen they affected his country." 

To emotional, passionate impetuosity, checked 
by intellectual control, reserve, and sure-footed 
vigilance, add the personal gentleness and kind- 
ness which helped his popularity in Virginia, 
where for years the number of votes he received 
for the Assembly vastly outnumbered those of any- 
body else, and we are prepared for the enthusiastic 
reception given to his appointment. " The Gen- 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 1 29 

eral," wrote John Adams, ably summing up the 
public impression, is " amiable and accomplished 
and judicious and cool." Mrs. Adams wrote to 
her husband : — 

" The appointment of the generals Washington and 
Lee gives universal satisfaction. . . . 

"... I was struck with General Washington. You 
had prepared me to entertain a favorable opinion of him, 
but I thought the half was not told me. Dignity with 
ease and complacency, the gentleman and soldier, looked 
agreeably blended in him. Modesty marks every line 
and feature of his face. Those lines of Dryden instantly 
occurred to me : — 

" Mark his majestic fabric ! he's a temple 
Sacred by birth, and buih b}' hands divine ; 
His soul's the deity that lodges there ; 
Nor is the pile unworthy of the god." 

Adams, in one of his rebellious moods, asked 
if Washington would ever have been commander 
of the Revolutionary army, or President of the 
United States, if he had not married the rich 
widow of Mr. Custis. The implication is wholly 
unfair. There is no evidence that his position in 
Virginia depended essentially on his wealth. His 
military fame existed even across the water. Soon 
after the news reached England, Mr. Wedderburn 
exclaimed in the House of Commons, " Even the 
mighty General Washington himself, with his re- 
doubted riflemen, was vanquished by the Indians 
on the banks of the Ohio." 

K 



130 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Before he set out . for Boston he carefully ex- 
pressed his attitude to his wife, in a letter which 
has great value because it is one of only two that 
have been preserved : — 



*' My Dearest, 



"Philadelphia, \% June, 1775. 



''You may believe me, my dear Patsy, when I assure 
you, in the most solemn manner, that, so far from seek- 
ing this appointment, I have used every endeavor in my 
power to avoid it, not only from my unwilHngness to 
part with you and the family, but from a consciousness 
of its being a trust too great for my capacity, and that 
I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with 
you at home, than I have the most distant prospect of 
finding abroad, if my stay were to be seven times seven 
years. But as it has been a kind of destiny, that has 
thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my under- 
taking it is designed to answer some good purpose. 
You might, and I suppose did perceive, from the tenor 
of my letters, that / zvas apprehensive I could not avoid 
this appointmeiit ^ as I did not pretend to intimate when 
I should return. ... I shall feel no pain from the toil or 
the danger of the campaign ; my unhappiness will flow 
from the uneasiness I know you will feel from being left 
alone. I therefore beg that you will summon your 
whole fortitude, and pass your time as agreeably- as 
possible. Nothing will give me so much sincere satis- 
faction as to hear this, and to hear it from your own 
pen. My earnest and ardent desire is, that you would 
pursue any plan that is most Hkely to produce content, 
and a tolerable degree of tranquillity ; as it must add 

1 The italics are mine. 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 1 3 1 

greatly to my uneasy feelings to hear, that you are dis- 
satisfied or complaining at what I really could not avoid. 
*' As life is always uncertain, and common prudence 
dictates to every man the necessity of settling his tem- 
poral concerns, while it is in his power, and while the 
mind is calm and undisturbed, I have, since I came to 
this place (for I had not time to do it before I left home) 
got Colonel Pendleton to draft a will for me, by the 
directions I gave him, which will I now enclose. The 
provision made for you in case of my death will, I hope, 
be agreeable." 

Washington and a few officers departed from 
Philadelphia on horseback, accompanied a little 
way by many delegates, with their servants and 
carriages, a troop of Hght horse, and bands of 
music. He left General Schuyler in New York, 
which had a loyalist governor, and wrote him that 
he should not hesitate to order forcible measures 
if necessary, were it not that the Continental Con- 
gress was sitting " and the seizing of the governors 
quite a new thing " ; so he referred the general to 
that body for direction. The need of treating 
Congress with deference at this period was in- 
creased by the general American dread of military 
power. While Washington was in New York he 
received an address from Congress, containing 
what Mr. Sparks calls " a broad hint to a military 
commander-in-chief," an expression of " the fullest 
assurance, that whenever this important contest 
shall be decided by that fondest wish of each 



132 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

American soul, an accommodation with our 
mother country, you will cheerfully resign the 
important deposit committed into your hands and 
reassume the character of our worthiest citizen." 
Although Washington was always considerate of 
the civil authority, so jealous were the people, 
especially in New England, that but a little later 
he received a warning from a friend to treat the 
assembly with more respect. About his reception 
in Cambridge John Adams had written a signifi- 
cant hint in reference to pow^der : — 

" I hope the utmost politeness and respect will be 
shown to these officers on their arrival. The whole 
army, I think, should be drawn up upon the occasion, 
and all the pride, pomp, and circumstances of glorious 
war displayed ; — no powder burned, however." 

Shortage of powder was the most terrible fact 
they had to face. 

" Democracy," said Guizot, " requires two things 
for its tranquility and success ; it must feel itself 
trusted and yet restrained, and it must believe at 
once in the genuine devotedness and in the 
moral superiority of its leaders." 

To his intensely democratic army Washington 
was able to give much of that feeling even from 
the beginning. Lord Sandwich, in the debate of 
March i6th, 1775, remarked: "Suppose the colo- 
nies do abound in men, what does that matter.? 
They are raw, undisciplined, cowardly men." 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 1 33 

General Gage wrote, after the battle of Bunker 
Hill: — 

"The trials we have had show the rebels are not the 
despicable rabble too many of us have supposed them 
to be, and I find it owing to a military spirit, encouraged 
among them for a few years past, joined with an uncom- 
mon degree of zeal and enthusiasm, that they are other- 
wise. When they find cover, they make a good stand. . . . 
In all their wars against the French, they never showed 
so much conduct, attention, and perseverance as they 
do now." 

Such was the material on w^hich Washington 
was to work. On his way to Cambridge, when 
told of the battle of Bunker Hill, his first question 
was about the behavior of the militia, and he was 
informed that they held their ground ; but just 
after reaching the army he received a letter in- 
forming him that several officers had shown 
cowardice, and he soon found them guilty of that 
and other crimes, among them frauds, both in pay 
and in provisions. To Richard Henry Lee he 
wrote : — 

** It is among the most difficult tasks I ever under- 
took in my life to induce these people to believe that 
there is, or can be, danger till the Bayonet is pushed at 
their Breasts ; not that it proceeds from any uncommon 
prowess, but rather from an unaccountable kind of stu- 
pidity in the lower class of these people which, believe 
me, prevails but too generally among the officers of the 
Massachusetts part of the Army who are iiearly of the 
same kidney with the Privates, and adds not a little to 



134 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

my difficulties ; as there is no such thing as getting of 
officers of this stamp to exert themselves in carrying 
orders into execution — to curry favor with the men (by 
whom they were chosen, & on whose smiles possibly 
they may think they may again rely) seems to be one 
of the principal objects of their attention." 

There was the greatest jealousy between the 
officers and soldiers of different states. Massachu- 
setts had the best reputation, but Washington did 
not fall in love with this New England character. 
To Lund Washington he expressed himself 
freely : — 

" The people of this government have obtained a 
Character which they by no means deserved — their 
officers, generally speaking, are the most indifferent 
kind of people I ever saw. I have already broke one 
Colo, and five Captains for Cowardice & for drawing 
more Pay & Provisions than they had Men in their 
Companies — there is two more Colos. now under arrest, 
& to be tried for the same offences — in short they are 
by no means such troops, in any respect, as you are led 
to believe of them from the accts. which are published, 
but I need not make myself enemies among them, by 
this declaration, although it is consistent with truth. I 
dare say the Men would fight very well (if properly offi- 
cered) although they are an exceeding dirty & nasty 
people. Had they been properly conducted at Bunkers 
Hill (on the 17th of June) or those that were there prop- 
erly supported, the Regulars would have met with a 
shameful defeat, and a much more considerable loss 
than they did, which is now known to be exactly 1057 
killed & wounded — it was for their behaviour on that 
occasion that the above officers were broke, for I never 



COMi\IANDER-IN-CHIEF 1 35 

spared one that was accused of Cowardice, but brot 'em 
to immediate Tryal," ... '* The Massachusetts People 
suffer nothing to go by them that they can lay hands 
upon." 

To Joseph Reed he wrote : — 

" Notwithstanding all the publick virtue which is as- 
crib'd to these people, there is no nation under the sun 
(that I ever came across) pay greater adoration to 
money than they do. . . . 

" The party to Bunker's Hill had some good and 
some bad men engaged in it. One or two courts have 
been held on the conduct of part of it. To be plain, 
these people — among friends — are not to be depended 
upon if exposed ; and any man will fight well if he 
thinks himself in no danger. I do not apply this only 
to these people. I suppose it is to be the case with all 
raw and undisciplined troops." 

Among the general officers much trouble was 
made by professional jealousy, especially as the 
arrangement of them was, as Washington ex- 
pressed it, injudicious. A glimpse into the con- 
dition of the army a few months later is vividly 
given in the diary of a private soldier : ^ — 

" 10. There was two women Drumd out of Camp 
this forenoon. That man was Buried that Killed him- 
self Drinking. . . . 

" 12. There was a man found Dead in a room with 
A Woman this morning. It is not known what Killed 
him. 

" 17. Lie't Chandler Broke out with the Small pox 
and was sent to the pest house this afterNoon." 

1 David How's Diary, Morrisonia, N. Y., 1865. 



136 GEORGE WASHI^^GTON 

How the general met some of his problems is 
shown in this account of an incident, seen by Sul- 
livan, which happened while Washington was at 
Cambridge : ^ — 

" One morning, while Sullivan was closeted with 
Washington at headquarters, on some mission from the 
house, Col. Glover, of the Marblehead regiment, which 
was encamped in an enclosed pasture north of the Col- 
leges, came in to announce that his men were in a state 
of mutiny. Washington instantly strode to his horse, 
kept always in readiness at the door, leaped into the 
saddle, and, followed by Mr. Sullivan and Col. Glover, 
rode at full gallop to the camp. His servant, Pompey 
sent in advance to let down the bars, had just dismounted 
for the purpose, when Washington, coming up leaped 
over Pompey, bars and all, and darted into the midst of 
the mutineers. It was on the occasion of the well-known 
contest between the fishermen of Marblehead and the 
Virginia riflemen under Morgan ; the latter of whom, in 
half-Indian equipments of fringed and ruffled hunting 
onirts, provoked the merriment of the northern troops. 
From words they proceeded to blows, and soon at least 
a thousand combatants, armed for the most part only 
with snow-balls, were engaged in conflict. 'The Gen- 
eral threw the bridle of his horse into his servant's hands, 
and, rushing into the thickest of the fight, seized two tall, 
brawny riflemen by the throat, keeping them at arm's 
length, talking to, and shaking them.' " 

This disturbance was instantly quelled, but of 
course such dramatic methods were seldom called 
for. It was mainly a routine of discipline. Even 

1 Amory, "Life of Sullivan," i, 69. 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 1 37 

critics who doubt Washington's greatness as a 
general admit his ability in the minute details 
needed to form an army, and this one rapidly 
improved under him, although he had difficulties 
in getting proper equipment or sufficient money. 
The troops were all raised for short terms, and 
it was hard to induce them to reenlist. Wash- 
ington spoke of their "dirty, mercenary spirit." 
All the difficulties of introducing discipline and 
subordination into the army were, as Washington 
pointed out, vastly increased by the fact that it 
must be done in such proximity to the British, 
when an attack might be made at any time, and 
when he thought it wise to deceive the enemy in 
regard to his numbers. Each commander imag- 
ined the opposing army greater than it was. 
Much worse than any of these difficulties, how- 
ever, was the terrible shortage of powder. So 
extreme was the dearth of this most necessary 
article that it determined the whole plan of cam- 
paign. It is reported that when Washington first 
heard of the shortage he did not utter a word for 
half an hour. Messengers were sent immediately 
to the Southern colonies to call in their stores. 
Firing about the camp was forbidden. Desperate 
enterprises were encouraged to secure powder. 
Everything must be done without letting the 
shortage become known to the enemy. At one 
time there was, as Washington said, scarcely 



138 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

enough to serve the artillery in any brisk action 
a single day. The necessary secrecy led to 
unjust criticism of the commander, who was 
sensitive to it, but helpless. He had to endure 
what he called " the insult " of a cannonade with- 
out replying to it. Wet weather helped waste 
what little powder they had. 

These two things alone — the lack of powder and 
the necessity of supplying the places of the men, 
who were enlisted for a few months, and could not 
be induced to remain, and of training new ones 
— made it apparently impossible to destroy the 
enemy. General Gage, who was in command of 
the British in Boston, was at least as little inclined 
to take the offensive, and as soon as the news of 
Bunker Hill reached England, he was ordered 
home. General Howe replacing him. The British 
were particularly troubled by lack of provisions, 
from which Washington took great pains to shut 
them off, as far as their command of the sea 
allowed. Mentioning this, he adds that he has 
done, " and shall continue to do, everything in my 
power to distress them," a phrase singularly lik"^ 
what George HI. wrote to Lord North a few 
months later, " Every means of distressing Amer- 
ica must meet with my concurrence." 

The spirit was harsh enough on both sides, as 
it always must be in civil war. W^ashington spoke 
of the loyalists as " execrable parricides," although 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 1 39 

he treated them properly. After the evacuation 
he wrote, " One or two have done what a great 
number ought to have done long ago, committed 
suicide." 

The siege of Boston threw no particular light 
on Washington's powers as a general, but it 
showed his ability to improve an army and to 
deal tactfully with so jealous a master as the Con- 
tinental Congress. Sensitiveness to public opin- 
ion, whether in the legislators or in the people, 
w^as a quality which he ahvays showed, and noth- 
ing could be more needed in a country which had 
such an exaggerated dread of military authority, 
far greater at the beginning of the Revolution 
than it ever has been since. His care for the 
impressions which his actions produced on the 
public renders it difficult to fathom his motives 
during the long and tiresome siege. While he 
talked so constantly about the lack of powder, he 
was yet frequently urging an attack. Was this 
because he knew that the majority of his generals 
were against it, and by proposing it he could dem- 
onstrate, without risk, to the impatient part of 
the community how^ eager he was ? Would he 
have urged it if the others had wished an attack ? 
Would he then not rather have emphasized the 
dangers ? We know at least that Howe wished 
to tempt the Americans to attack him. To Con- 
gress Washington wrote that his desire for some 



140 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 

prompt solution grew out of his sense of the 
heavy expense to which the country was being 
put, — a piece of tact merely, for he knew how 
much more frugal were the natives of New Eng- 
land and the Congress in military matters than 
he would have cared to be. 

The attempt to dislodge the enemy was not 
made until early in March. The method was to 
send troops across in the night to build forts 
on Dorchester Neck, a position from which artil- 
lery could make Boston an impossible residence. 
In case there should be a discovery, Washington 
had his army so disposed that he felt that when 
the British attacked the troops on Dorchester 
Neck he could fall upon them with every pros- 
pect of success. There w^as no discovery, and 
a surprising amount of intrenchment was accom- 
plished. A British officer compared this accom- 
plishment to the deeds of Aladdin. General Howe 
told Lord Dartmouth that at least twelve thou- 
sand men must have been employed on the 
fortifications, and that the rebels had done more 
between evening and morning than his entire 
army could have done in a month. In reality the 
Americans at work did not exceed twelve hun- 
dred. Washington's training as a surveyor prob- 
ably was of value in the conception and execution 
of this move. Its success convinced the British 
that they must leave Boston, and they were al- 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 141 

lowed to do so, without molestation, on an agree- 
ment, it is generally believed, that they should go 
without attempting to injure the city. Washing- 
ton said that he was rather disappointed that an 
engagement had not been brought on, although 
he would not lament, as he " was in a great meas- 
ure a convert to Mr. Pope's opinion that whatever 
is, is right." The American troops took posses- 
sion of the city, under the strictest orders against 
pillage. 

John Adams moved that a vote of thanks and 
a medal be sent from Congress to Washington. 
Among the many congratulations were some from 
men who were to play strange parts later. Briga- 
dier-General Benedict Arnold wrote from Mon- 
treal : — 

** I heartily congratulate you on the success of your 
arms before Boston." 

Major-General Charles Lee wrote : — 

" I most sincerely congratulate you ; I congratulate 
the public on the great and glorious event, your posses- 
sion of Boston. It will be a bright page in the annals 
of America, and a most abominable black one in those 
of the beldam Britain." 

Washington's spirit toward Great Britain in 
these months of w^aiting had grown more bitter, 
and he was by this time prepared for indepen- 
dence. Southey pictures Washington and George 



142 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

III. patting each other on the back, so to speak, in 
the future world, and blaming for their difficulties 
those — 

" Who for wicked ends, with foul arts of faction and falsehood, 
Kindled and fed the flame." 

Amono[ those who did most at this time to feed 
the flame was Thomas Paine, the author of " Com- 
mon Sense." On the last day of January Wash- 
ington had written thus to Joseph Reed : — 

" I hope my countrymen of Virginia will rise superior 
to any losses the whole navy of Great Britain can bring 
on them, and that the destruction of Norfolk and the 
threatened devastation of other places will have no other 
effect than to unite the whole country in one indissoluble 
band against a nation which seems to be lost to every 
sense of virtue and those feehngs which distinguish a 
civilized people from the most barbarous savages. A 
few more of such flaming arguments as were exhibited 
at Falmouth and Norfolk, added to the sound doctrine 
and unanswerable reasoning contained in the pamphlet, 
Common Sense, will not leave numbers at a loss to decide 
upon the propriety of a separation." 

Washington said that the destruction of Fal- 
mouth exceeded " in barbarity and cruelty every 
hostile act practised among civilized nations," and 
he saw in the burning of Falmouth the "bar- 
barous designs of an infernal ministry." He had 
now dropped the distinction between the king's 
troops and the ministerial troops, and had written 
in November : — 



COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF I43 

" It has long been my political creed, that the minis- 
try durst not have gone on as they did, but under the 
firmest persuasion that the people were with them." 

The Americans, however, had some brilliant 
supporters in the mother country. David Hume 
was asked to draw up an address to the king, for 
the county of Renfrew, against the colonists. 
He refused, added that he sympathized with the 
Americans, and, referring to the king, said, " Tell 
him that Lord North, though in appearance a 
worthy gentleman, has not a head for these great 
operations, and that if fifty thousand men and 
twenty millions of money were intrusted to such 
a lukewarm coward as Gage, they could never 
produce any effect." 

Another historian, Robertson, wrote, in the 
fall of 1775, that the Americans would gain free- 
dom some time, but the day might be postponed 
if the British leaders would use all the power of 
the empire at once. Otherwise the struggle would 
be "long, dubious, and disgraceful. . . . If the con- 
test be protracted, the smallest interruption of the 
tranquility that now reigns in Europe, or even the 
appearance of it, may be fatal." 

Washington, in January, spoke of the " rancor 
and resentment" of the royal will, and used with 
italic sarcasm the words most gracious majesty. 
He said," The throne, from which we had suppli- 
cated redress, breathes forth vengeance and in- 



144 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 

dignation, and a firm determination to remain 
unalterable in its purposes and to prosecute the 
system and plan of ruin formed by the minis- 
try against us." According to his own account, 
Washington's last hope of reconciliation van- 
ished when he heard of the measures taken in 
Enorland after the fioht at Bunker Hill. In the 
letter in which he made that statement he said 
that the "tyrant and his diabolical ministry" 
ought to be told clearly that if they persisted 
the Americans would "shake off all connection 
with a state so unjust and unnatural." By the 
time that Washington left Boston, on April, 
to follow the enemy to New York, hardly even 
Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams were more 
passionately hostile and determined to sever all 
ties. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN 

" The conduct of our General, in avoiding a decisive action, is 
much applauded by the military people here, particularly Marshals 
Maillebois, Broglio, and D'Arcy." — Franklin. 

Passing through Princeton, Norwich, and New 
London, to hasten the embarkation of troops, 
Washington reached New York on April 13th. 
As General Howe had not gone to that city, and 
as the British war vessels retired to Sandy Hook, 
there was no cause for immediate action, and 
Washington's principal task was to complete the 
work of defence begun by General Lee. While 
thus engaged he was called to Philadelphia to 
advise Congress about the best plans for the de- 
fence of the Colonies. He urged the necessity of 
engaging Indians, to keep them from joining the 
British, deeming their neutrality impossible ; and, 
authorized to give the savages $100 for every 
commissioned officer captured in the Indian 
country or on the frontiers, and $30 for every 
common soldier, he advised that the most be 
made of this inducement. He also spoke for the 
L 145 



146 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

employment of Eastern and Northern Indians, as 
well as those of the far West. " It will prevent 
our Enemies from securing their friendship, and 
further they will be of infinite service in annoying 
and harassing them should they ever attempt to 
penetrate the country." Again, each side in high 
words condemned the other for doing what no 
efforts could keep from resulting in atrocities. 
Congress resolved, as President Hancock ex- 
pressed it to Washington, " that such cruelty as 
shall be inflicted on prisoners in their possession, 
by savages or foreigners taken into pay by the 
King of Great Britain, shall be considered as done 
by his orders, and recourse be immediately had 
to retaliation." Related ethically to the employ- 
ment of Indians, was the purchase by the British 
of Hessian troops, a measure which provoked in 
the Colonies the fiercest rao^e. Washinorton suo^- 
gested the advisability of inducing certain loyal 
Germans to go among the mercenary allies of 
the enemy and breed discontent, and Congress 
passed a resolution offering all the rights of na- 
tives and fifty acres of land each to all soldiers 
who would desert. One thousand acres were to 
be given to a colonel, eight hundred to a lieu- 
tenant-colonel, and so down. George III. had 
shown compunctions when this subject was first 
broached. " The giving Commissions to German 
officers to get men I can by no means consent 



THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN 



147 



to," he wrote to Lord North, " for it in plain 
EngHsh amounts to making me a kidnapper, 
which I cannot think a very honourable occupa- 
tion." George III. sometimes showed as high a 
sense of mere probity as George Washington. 
The important differences between them were 
in wisdom and talents, — commodities in which 
the king was notably deficient. 

Another subject discussed by Washington and 
the legislature at Philadelphia was the best 
method of improving affairs in Canada, where 
the results thus far had been disastrous to the 
Americans. Among the things advised by him 
was the kindest treatment of the inhabitants, to 
win at least their neutrality. " They have the 
character of an ingenious, artful people, and very 
capable of finesse and cunning. Therefore my ad- 
vice is, that you put not too much in their power; 
but seem to trust them, rather than do it too far." 
Commenting on the character of General Sulli- 
van, who was aiming at the command in Canada, 
Washington, in one of the numerous passages in 
which he succinctly and frankly summed up offi- 
cers, said : — 

'* That he does not want abilities, many members of 
Congress as well as myself, can testify ; but he has his 
wants, and he has his foibles. The latter are manifested 
in a little tincture of vanity, and in an over desire of 
being popular, which now and then leads him into 



148 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

embarrassments. His wants are common to us all — the 
want of experience to move upon a large scale ; for the 
limited and contracted knowledge, which any of us have 
in military matters, stands in very Httle stead, and is 
greatly overbalanced by sound judgment, and some knowl- 
edge of men and books, especially when accompanied 
by an enterprising genius, which, I must do General 
Sullivan the justice to say, I think he possesses." 

Soon after this, the American army was driven 
out of Canada. When Washington remonstrated 
with General Gates for the abandonment of 
Crown Point, he received a reply absolutely 
impertinent. Gates described the bad state of 
his own army, and contrasted it with the condi- 
tion of the troops under Washington's command. 
The reply of the commander-in-chief was brief 
and temperate, " By the by, I wish your descrip- 
tion perfectly corresponded with the real circum- 
stances of this army." Charles Lee wrote to 
Washington, " I am extremely happy, dear Gen- 
eral, that you are at Philadelphia, for their coun- 
sels sometimes lack a little military electricity." 
Washington was able to furnish electricity, and 
he supplemented it with unusual tact toward all 
with whom he had to do. 

The most important subject at Philadelphia 
was the question of changing the contest from 
one for the redress of certain grievances to one 
for independence. The opposition to indepen- 
dence in the Southern colonies must have done 



THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN I49 

much to extend Washington's sympathy, and to 
prepare him for a national rather than a Virginian 
point of view. The reverent attitude toward 
royalty was fast disappearing. The welcome 
given to Paine's " Common Sense " helps to show 
how fast the American point of view towards 
monarchs was changing. In March Washington 
wrote, " The opinion for independency seems to 
be gaining ground ; indeed most of those who 
have read the Pamphlet (Common Sense) say it's 
unanswerable." Paine treated Georore III. as an 
enemy to America. In July the statue of the 
king was pulled down and mutilated in Broad- 
way, an act which called out a reprimand from 
'Washington, as it bore the appearance of a riot. 
In June, while Washington was in Philadelphia, 
Congress gave him a banquet, at which some of 
the toasts were : — 

''5. The protesting lords. 7. Mr. Burke. 18. May 
the ruins of the British Empire crush those who under- 
mine its pillars. 19. May no injuries erase from our 
bosoms the sentiments of humanity. 23. May the gen- 
erous sons of St. Patrick expel all the venomous rep- 
tiles of Britain." 

The feeling of independence carried the day, 
and a formal declaration was made. The cautious 
Congress omitted Jefferson's attack on the British 
people, and also his strong condemnation of the 
slave-trade. 



I50 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

" Our Northern brethren," adds Jefferson, " also, 
I believe, felt a little tender under these censures, 
for though their people had very few slaves them- 
selves, yet they had been considerable carriers of 
them to others." 

Even the astute Franklin regretted the mild- 
ness of the result. When the draft of the decla- 
ration was forwarded to Washing^ton, who had 
returned to New York, he, following the request 
of Congress, read it to the troops, and, as he 
stated it, " seemed to have their most hearty 
assent." In France it was accepted with igno- 
rance and enthusiasm. Mirabeau w^ondered if 
those who hailed it had really read it, and 
Lafayette remarked with a smile that they had 
announced a principle of national sovereignty 
from which they would soon hear at home. 

During the period of awaiting developments at 
New York, Washington gave considerable atten- 
tion to the Tories. In the orderly book for May 
loth, 1776, we read: — 

" Joseph Child of the New York Train of Artillery, 
tried at a late General Court Martial whereof Col. Hunt- 
ington was President, * for defrauding Christopher Stet- 
son of a dollar, also for drinking damnation to all Whigs 
and Sons of Liberty, and for profane cursing and swear- 
ing.' The Court finding the prisoner guilty of profane 
cursing and swearing, and speaking contemptuously of 
the American army, do sentence him to be drum'd out 
of the Army." 



THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN 151 

After Howe arrived in June, and established 
his headquarters on Staten Island, the general 
dissatisfaction with the American cause became 
great. The danger was increased, and Washing- 
ton sent away his wife who visited him frequently 
throughout the war. He arrested a great many 
suspected citizens, or, as he called them, " dis- 
affected Persons of the most diabolical disposi- 
tions and Intentions," taking care, however, that 
they should be well treated. The discontent was 
increased by the fact that Howe, who was popu- 
lar in America, brought with him proposals for 
peace, which Congress would not entertain. 

The British troops on Staten Island amused 
themselves by burning in effigy numerous promi- 
nent Americans. One day a thunder-storm came 
before the work of preparation w^as completed. 
In the evening the effigies were lighted. All 
burned, except that of Washington, which re- 
mained as good as ever after the tar burned off. 
The Hessians w^ere frightened, until it was ex- 
plained to them by the officers that as it had 
no tar on it before the rain the wood became 
saturated with w^ater and would not burn.^ 

Washington, from the beginning, had small 
hope that he could permanently hold New York 
against the enemy. On July 2 2d he calculated 
that besides a powerful fleet, in full view of his 

1 Moore, Diary of Am. Rev., i, 277. 



152 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 

army, the enemy had eight or nine thousand men 
on Staten Island, a number likely soon to be in- 
creased to twenty-five thousand, while he would 
have about fifteen thousand. His view generally 
expressed was, that the British could take the city 
after considerable loss; but at one time he told the 
President of Congress that he had had for some 
time no doubt of defending the town. In this 
letter he said : — 

" If we should be obliged to abandon the town, ought 
it to stand as winter-quarters for the enemy ? They 
would derive great conveniences from it on the one 
hand ; and much property would be destroyed on the 
other. It is an important question, but will admit of 
but little time for deUberation. At present, I dare 
say the enemy mean to preserve it, if they can. If 
Congress, therefore, should resolve upon the destruc- 
tion of it, the resolution should be a profound secret, 
as the knowledge of it will make a change in their 
plans." 

Congress promptly ordered him to do no 
damage to the city. General Greene wrote in 
favor of destroying the city, as "two thirds 
of the property of the city and suburbs belong 
to the tories," and John Jay favored wholesale 
destruction. 

Washington's greatest difficulties grew out of 
the quality of his army. He was in constant fear 
of their becoming panic-stricken and running 
away. He was troubled by " scattering, unmean- 



THE NEW YORK CAiMPAIGN 153 

ing, and wasteful fire from our people at the enemy 
— a kind of fire that tended to disgrace our own 
men as soldiers, and to render our defence con- 
temptible in the eyes of the enemy." He was 
afraid that even the shrieks of women and chil- 
dren would have an unhappy effect on the ears 
and minds of his young and inexperienced sol- 
diery. Desertions were frequent and difficult to 
prevent. Jealousies between the troops of vari- 
ous provinces continued. It was not easy to keep 
the soldiers from wronging the inhabitants, al- 
though the commander threatened the offenders 
with drastic punishment. In such a state of dis- 
cipline it was deemed unwise to make any gen- 
.eral attack on Staten Island. 

At this time Lord Howe sent a message under 
a flag, with certain proposals, to " George Wash- 
ington, Esq'^" Through Washington's directions 
the messenger was informed that there was no 
such person in the army, and the general received 
the thanks of Congress for acting with a dignity 
becoming his station. 

Anticipating the possibility that the British, 
when they were ready to attack New York, might 
do it by way of Long Island, W^ashington had 
placed troops in Brooklyn and built fortifications. 
This position was attacked on August 27th and 
carried, more than one thousand Americans, in- 
cluding the two commanders. Lord Sterling and 



154 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 

General Sullivan, being captured. Washington 
crossed to the island during the action, but he 
did not dare to bring over any troops from New 
York. A heavy rain and a wind so strong that 
the ships could not ascend the harbor helped him 
to get the rest of the detachment to New York. 
He conducted the retreat, which was made on the 
morning of the 30th, with such skill that the last 
boat was crossing the river before the enemy, part 
of whom were within six hundred yards, discov- 
ered the move. It is said that for forty-eight 
hours during this movement Washington did 
not close his eyes, and seldom dismounted. For 
the surprise which the British were able to effect 
he has sometimes been blamed, although he was 
not in immediate command ; but for the retreat 
he has always received the highest praise. Gen- 
eral Greene called it the best-effected retreat he 
ever read or heard of, considering the difficulties. 
This first serious reverse brought out the famous 
phrase of Fox, " The terrible news from Long 
Island." Washington confessed his want of con- 
fidence in most of the army, and said that no 
dependence could be put on a militia, or other 
troops raised for so short a time. The soldiers 
in general were " filled with apprehension and 
despair," the militia were " dismayed, intractable, 
and impatient to return." They went off almost 
by whole regiments at a time. 



THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN 1 55 

Washington's plans, under these conditions, 
were dilatory merely. Experience had confirmed 
the opinion that the war should be defensive, 
and he was disappointed in the way the soldiers 
defended even strongly fortified posts. " The 
honor of making a brave defence does not seem 
to be a sufficient stimulus, when success is very 
doubtful, and the falling into the enemy's hands 
probable." It was obvious after the battle of 
Long Island that New York must be evacuated 
whenever it might be bombarded, and Washing- 
ton was prepared to leave at any moment, espe- 
cially as it was feared that the enemy intended to 
get in the rear and cut off communications. Wash- 
ington himself was at Harlem, where, on Septem- 
ber 15th, the sound of guns told him that there 
was fighting to the south. The enemy had be- 
gun its movement to take possession of the city. 
When Washington reached the East River, he 
found his troops flying in confusion, almost with- 
out firing a shot. General Heath relates in his 
Memoirs : — 

" About noon, the British landed at Kepp's Bay. 
They met with but small resistance, and pushed towards 
the city, of which they took possession in the after- 
noon. . . . Here the Americans, we are sorry to say, 
did not behave well; and here it was, as fame hath 
said, that General Washington threw his hat on the 
ground, and exclaimed, * Are these the men with which 
I am to defend America ? ' " 



156 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

James Thatcher, in his Military Journal, re- 
lates that when Washington could not rally the 
troops, he drew his sword and snapped his pistols, 
and was in such danger that one of his officers 
seized the reins of his horse and gave him a dif- 
ferent direction. General Greene wrote : — 

" Fellows's and Parsons's brigades ran away from 
about fifty men, and left his Excellency on the ground 
within eighty yards of the enemy, so vexed at the 
infamous conduct of the troops that he sought death 
rather than life." 

Tench Tilghman, an aide, with whom Wash- 
ington was unusually intimate, wrote to his father 
the day after this retreat : — 

" Our army is posted as advantageously as possible 
for security, out of reach of the fire of the ships from 
either river, and upon high ground of difficult access. 
I don't know whether the New England troops will stand 
there, but I am sure they will not upon open ground. 
I had a specimen of that yesterday. Hear two brigades 
ran away from a small advance party of regulars, tho 
the General did all in his power to convince them they 
were in no danger. He laid his cane over many of the 
officers, who showed their men the example of running. 
These were mihtia. The New England Continental 
troops are much better." 

Robert Morris, soon to play so important a part 
in aid of his country, wrote a few days after Wash- 
ington's recklessness : — 

"My confidence in the abilities of General Washing- 
ton is entire. His life is the most valuable in Amer'ica ; 



THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN 157 

and whenever an engagement happens, I sincerely hope 
he will think how much depends on it, and guard it 
accordingly," 

Most of the heavy cannon, and part of the 
stores and provisions, were necessarily abandoned. 
Washington, in his reports, charged the troops 
severely with the most ignoble cowardice. He 
encamped upon the heights of Harlem, a position 
so strong that he thought even tolerable resolution 
would defeat any attempt to take it. A favorable 
skirmish soon put some cheerfulness into the 
soldiers. At this time the northern part of New 
York was set on fire in the night, and about a 
quarter of the city destroyed. Governor Tryon 
wrote to Lord George Germaine: — 

" Many circumstances lead to conjecture that Mr. 
Washington was privy to this villainous Act, as he sent 
all the bells of the churches out of town, under pretense 
of casting them into cannon." 

This charge has not been accepted by historians, 
but we have already seen that it was Congress and 
not Washington who decided not to burn this 
city. 

About this time Washington made the ac- 
quaintance of a very young man, who was to play 
a high part in his commander's future career. 
Washington was inspecting an earthwork which 
this youth superintended. Receiving an impres- 
sion favorable to the young officer, he invited him 



158 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

to the tent of the commander-in-chief ^ and began 
an acquaintance which advanced rapidly. Of 
Hamilton, as he appeared at this period, the 
first impression of a veteran officer of the Revo- 
lution has been preserved by Washington Irv- 
ing:— 

*' I noticed a youth, a mere stripling, small, slender, 
almost delicate in frame, marching beside a piece of 
artillery, with a cocked hat pulled down over his eyes, 
apparently lost in thought, with his hand resting on the 
cannon, and every now and then patting it as he mused, 
as if it were a favorite horse or a pet plaything." 

At Harlem, according to Washington, one- 
quarter of his troops were ill. An eye-witness, 
General Heath, says that there were ten thousand 
sick, with such poor hospital accommodation that 
in almost every barn, stable, shed, and even under 
the fences and bushes, they could be seen, show- 
ing their distress in their faces. Dr. Thatcher, 
who showed the commander through the hospitals, 
said that Washington was " always tenderly dis- 
posed to spare the lives of his soldiers," and that 
in the hospitals " he appeared to take a deep 
interest in the situation of the sick and wounded 
soldiers, and inquired particularly as to their treat- 
ment and comfortable accommodations." Tilgh- 
man, always ardent in praise of Washington, 
wrote to his father : — 

1 Of Hamilton, " History of the Republic," Vol. i, p. 129. 



THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN 1 59 

** I never saw any man so strictly observant of the 
preservation of private property. He never fails to 
punish any breach that comes under his observation, 
but I am sorry to say that most of his officers do not 
keep up the same discipline." 

This same member of Washington's military 
family wrote : — 

*• You can have no idea of the General's merits and 
abiUties without being with him. Few words serve him, 
but they are to the purpose, and an order once given by 
him is obeyed through every department." 

Also: — 

" I take your caution to me in regard to my health 
very kindly, but I assure you you need be under no 
apprehension of my losing it on the score of excess in 
living. That vice is banished from this army, and the 
General's family in particular. We never sup, but go 
to bed early, and are early up. The New England 
troops are the only sick ones, and a good deal of that is 
laziness." 

Again : — 

" The Virginia and Maryland troops bear the palm. 
They are well officered and behave with as much regu- 
larity as possible, while the Eastern people are plunder- 
ing everything that comes in their way. An Ensign 
is to be tried for marauding to-day. The General will 
execute him, if he can get a court-martial to convict 
him." 

It should be remarked, in favor of New Eng- 
land, that Tilghman was, like his commander, a 
Southerner. John Adams wrote more generally: 



l6o GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 
"The spirit of venality you mention is the most 
dreadful and alarming enemy America has to oppose. 
It is as rapacious and insatiable as the grave. . . . 
This predominant avarice will ruin America, if she is 
ever ruined." 

Adams also noticed the bad discipline of the 
troops, and introduced into Congress a resolution 
ordering the commander-in-chief to take certain 
measures to improve it, an implied censure which 
Washington took quietly, and answered fully, 
blaming the Congress for not establishing the 
army upon a permanent footing and giving the 
officers good pay. 

" When men are irritated and their passions inflamed, 
they fly hastily and cheerfully to arms ; but, after the 
first emotions are over, to expect among such people as 
compose the bulk of an army that they are influenced 
by any other principles than those of interest is to look 
for what never did, and I fear never will happen ; and, 
till the bulk of your officers is composed of such per- 
sons as are actuated by principles of honor and a spirit 
of enterprise, you have little to expect from them." 

Until the officers were a different class from 
the soldiers, discipline, Washington thought, 
would be impossible. Joseph Reed wrote to his 
wife October nth: — 

** It is impossible for any one to have an idea of the 
equality which exists between the officers and men who 
compose the greater part of our troops. You may form 
some notion of it when I tell you that yesterday morn- 



THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN i6l 

ing a captain of horse, who attends the General, was 
seen shaving one of his men on the parade near the 
house." 

Social equality, however, proved no very ter- 
rible injury to discipline in the American civil war. 

Washington said that what little discipline he 
had been able to introduce had been in a manner 
done away with by the mixture of troops called 
together in the last few months. He argued for 
a standing army, and said that he could declare 
upon oath his belief that the militia did more 
harm than good. General Charles Lee, who was 
always fiery in talk, commented thus to General 
Gates : " Inter nos Congress seem to stumble 
at every step. I have been very free in deliver- 
ing my opinion to them. General Washington is 
much to blame in not menacing them with resig- 
nation, unless they refrain from unhinging the 
army by their absurd interference." Plundering 
was one of the greatest evils, and this also Wash- 
ington attributed to the poor quality of the offi- 
cers, caused by bad pay and temporary service. 
Calm as he was in his manner toward Congress, 
Washington wished posterity to know the truth, 
and he put the same facts much more sharply to 
Lund Washington, with the hint, " If I fall, it 
may not be amiss that these circumstances be 
known, and declaration made in credit to the jus- 
tice of my character." 

M •» 



1 62 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Finally, early in October, Howe sent two ships 
and a frigate up the Hudson, to cut off supplies 
from that direction, and soon after landed most of 
his troops on the mainland, left some at Harlem, 
and proceeded slowly with the rest to the high 
ground at East Chester and New Rochelle. At 
a council of war it was decided by the Americans 
to leave New York Island, but to retain Fort 
Washington on the east side of the North River. 
After dividing his army to protect the removal 
of his stores, Washington drew it all together at 
White Plains to be ready for a general attack. 
A number of skirmishes took place, in the prin- 
cipal one of which, October 27th, at Chatterton's 
Hill, the British were successful. Of Washing- 
ton in this skirmish a little picture has been 
preserved for us by General Heath. In the fore- 
noon a heavy cannonading was heard toward Fort 
Washington. From the American camp, to the 
southwest, there appeared to be a commanding 
height worthy of attention. Washington ordered 
those general officers who were off duty to attend 
him in reconnoitring this ground. On closer ap- 
proach, it did not seem so commanding, and Gen- 
eral Lee pointed to other land which looked 
superior to it. The generals were on the way 
thither, when a light-horseman rode up at full 
gallop, and thus addressed Washington: — 

" The British are on the camp, sir." 



THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN 163 

The general turned to his companions : — 

" Gentlemen, we have now other business than 
reconnoitring." 

So saying he touched the spurs to his horse 
and went off at full gallop, followed by the other 
generals. At headquarters he learned that the 
guards had been all beaten in, and that the 
army was in order of battle. He turned to his 
oflBcers, and merely said, " Gentlemen, you will 
repair to your respective posts, and do the best 
you can." 

Howe did nothing to follow up his advantage, 
and after a few days Washington withdrew to 
some hills which were so strong that Howe gave 
up all idea of attacking him, and took his army 
off toward the Hudson and Kingsbridge. His 
first move was to take Fort Washington and over 
twenty-eight hundred prisoners, a feat which he 
accomplished with little trouble. That this loss 
to the Americans was the result of an important 
error in military strategy, has never been doubted. 
Washington reported that the preservation of the 
passage of the North River was an object of such 
consequence that he determined, "agreeably to 
the advice of most of the general officers, to risk 
something to defend the post." He ordered Colo- 
nel Magaw, who was left in command of the fort, 
to defend it to the last, but afterward, " reflecting 
upon the smallness of the garrison, and the difli- 



l64 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

culty of their holding it, if General Howe should 
fall upon it with his whole force," he wrote Gen- 
eral Greene, who had command of the Jersey 
shore, to " govern himself by circumstances." 
Greene was in favor of holding on. 

To John Augustine Washington, General 
Washington gave a different coloring to the 
story, saying that the fort at the last was held 
contrary to his wishes and opinion. To Joseph 
Reed he described the affair three years later in 
a way which, while showing the views of Greene 
and of Congress, admits his lack of decision, 
"that warfare in my mind, and hesitation, w^hich 
ended in the loss of the garrison." This mistake 
caused much hostile criticism, and it is probably 
the clearest example which Washington ever gave 
of the occasional evil results of too little confi- 
dence in his own judgment. General Charles 
Lee wrote to General Gates, after the capture of 
the post : — 

" Between ourselves, a certain great man is most 
damnably deficient. . . . Our councils have been weak 
to the last degree." 

Joseph Reed wrote to General Lee that it was 
entirely owing to Lee that the army was not 
entirely cut off. Referring to the Fort Wash- 
ington error, he remarked: — 

** General WasJiington' s own judgment, seconded by 
representations from us, would, I believe, have saved the 



THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN 165 

men and their arms ; but, unluckily, General Greene's 
judgment was contrary. This kept the General's mind 
in a state of suspense till the stroke was struck. Oh, 
General, an indecisive mind is one of the greatest mis- 
fortunes that can befall an army ; how often have I 
lamented it this campaign." 

Lee himself, about this time, on another point, 
with characteristic impudence, thus wrote to 
Washington : — 

'' Oh, General, why would you be overpersuaded by 
men of inferior judgment to your own } It was a cursed 
affair." 

How^e following up his successes, Washington 
moved toward the Delaware, his army constantly 
decreasing. Pursued by a detachment under 
Lord Cornwallis, he crossed the river, and as 
Howe made no further move, there was quiet 
for about three weeks. During this time. Gen- 
eral Lee, who had acted almost in direct insub- 
ordination to the orders of the commander-in- 
chief, was captured by a party of light horse — 
" taken by his own imprudence," Washington 
said. As Lee had been in the British army, he 
w^as held as a deserter by General Howe, until 
Washington threatened retaliation unless he was 
treated as a prisoner of war, w^hereupon Howe, 
after consulting with Lord George Germaine, 
yielded the point. 

Washington's situation at this time was prob- 



l66 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

ably at least as discouraging as at any period 
during the war. Robert Morris wrote on Decem- 
ber ist: — 

" Our people knew not the hardships and calamities 
of war when they so boldly dared Britain to arms ; 
every man was then a bold patriot, felt himself equal to 
the contest, and seemed to wish for an opportunity 
of evincing his prowess ; but now, when we are fairly 
engaged, when death and ruin stare us in the face, and 
when nothing but the most intrepid courage can rescue 
us from contempt and disgrace, sorry am I to say it, 
many of those who were foremost in noise, shrink cow- 
ard-Hke from the danger, and are begging pardon with- 
out striking a blow." 

Washington himself wrote in November: — 

** The different States, without regard to the qualifica- 
tions of an officer, quarrelling about the appointments, and 
nominating such as are not fit to be shoeblacks, from the 
local attachments of this or that member of Assembly." 

About how officers ought to be selected he 
gave these precise directions : — 

'' Take none but gentlemen ; let no local attachments 
influence you . . . recollect, also, that no instance has 
yet happened of good or bad behavior in a corps in 
our service that has not originated with the officers. 
Do not take old men, nor yet fill your corps with boys, 
especially for captains." 

" I have labored, ever since I have been in the service, 
to discourage all kinds of local attachments and distinc- 
tions of country, denominating the whole by the greater 
name of American, but I have found it impossible to 
overcome prejudices." 



THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN 167 

New Jersey and Pennsylvania showed small 
devotion to the cause, and the prospect of having 
a proper army in the spring, upon which every- 
thing would depend, did not look rosy. On 
December 20th Washington wrote to Congress, 
that ten days more would put an end to the ex- 
istence of the army. Before those ten days were 
gone, however, something happened. 



CHAPTER X 

FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE 

"He resembled Marcellus rather than Fabius, notwithstanding his 
rigid adherence to the Fabian policy during the war." — General 
Charles Lee. 

Washington realized the importance of public 
opinion, and knew that the public mind would be 
depressed by the loss of Philadelphia. Howe 
was alive to the same fact. Congress, likewise, 
conceived the idea of influencing the general 
spirit by resolving that they would not leave 
Philadelphia, a resolution which was, on Wash- 
ington's advice, wisely suppressed, since that 
body soon gave various exhibitions of nervous- 
ness. As the British advanced Congress ad- 
journed to Baltimore. " The fatal consequences 
that must attend its loss," wTote Washington, 
referring to Philadelphia, " are but too obvious 
to every one." He felt that, for the sake of hold- 
ing up the courage of the country, some des- 
perate blow must be struck. 

During his retreat across the Delaware a 
pamphlet had been written called " The Crisis," by 

1 68 



FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE 169 

Thomas Paine, who was in the retreat, and read 
to groups of the dispirited and suffering soldiers. 
The opening sentences read: — 

** These are the times that try nien's souls. The sum- 
mer patriot and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, 
shrink from the service of their country ; but he that 
stands it 7ioiv, deserves the love and thanks of man and 
woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered." 

Later, it said : — 

" Voltaire has remarked that King William never 
appeared to full advantage but in difficulties and in 
action ; the same remark may be made on General 
Washington for the character fits him. There is a 
natural firmness in some minds which cannot be un- 
locked by trifles, but which, when unlocked, discovers a 
cabinet of fortitude." 

This last sentence sounds like a prophecy, and 
the first sentence, " These are the times that try 
men's souls," was the watchword on the night 
after Christmas, 1776. Washington wrote thus: 

*' Christmas-day at night, one hour before day, is 
the time fixed upon for our attempt on Trenton. For 
Heaven's sake, keep this to yourself, as the discovery of 
it may prove fatal to us ; our numbers, sorry I am to 
say, being less than I had any conception of ; but neces- 
sity, dire necessity, will, nay must, justify any attempt." 

On Christmas night Washington prepared his 
troops to cross the river, and to fall before morn- 
ing on a detachment of the enemy's troops en- 
camped near Trenton. During the night a great 



I/O GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 

deal of ice had formed, and it impeded the boats 
so much that the artillery, which Washington 
had hoped to get across by midnight, was not all 
on the other side until three. As it was almost 
four before the troops took up their line of march, 
Washington now despaired of surprising the town, 
since it would be daylight before the troops could 
march the nine miles; yet if he retreated across 
the river, he would be discovered and harassed. 
He determined to march on at any risk. He 
divided the detachment into two divisions, to go 
by separate roads, force the outguards, push 
directly into the town, and charge the enemy be- 
fore they had time to form. 

The upper division arrived at the enemy's 
advance posts exactly at eight o'clock, and three 
minutes later the fire on the lower road told the 
chief that the other division had also arrived. 
The outguards, though few, kept up a constant 
retreating fire from behind houses. Soon the 
Americans saw the main body of the enemy form 
in a confused manner that showed they hardly 
knew how to act. They attempted to file off 
toward Princeton. Washington, seeing their in- 
tention, threw a body of troops in their way. 
Surrounded, they lay down their arms, 23 officers 
and 886 men. Nearly half escaped, who would 
have been taken, Washington thinks, had not the 
ice prevented General Ewing from crossing the 



FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE i/l 

river and taking possession of the bridge leading 
out of Trenton. As the ice had also prevented 
other troops under General Cadwalader from 
crossing, and as his men were very tired, Wash- 
ington thought it prudent to return that evening 
to his camp. 

He waited there three days, and on the 29th, in 
spite of ice that hindered boats, and would not 
allow passage on foot, crossed again. The diffi- 
culties of passage gave the enemy an opportunity 
to prepare, and Washington feared an attack by a 
superior force. Yet he wished to avoid the ap- 
pearance of a retreat. He ordered all the baggage 
to be silently removed to Burlington, soon after 
dark ; and at midnight, renewing the fires, to de- 
ceive the enemy, he marched by a roundabout 
road to Princeton, where he knew the British 
could not have much force left. Arriving about 
sunrise, he found only three regiments and three 
troops of light-horse, which he fell upon, inflicting 
a total loss that he estimated at about five hun- 
dred. The fatigue of his troops again led him 
not to attempt more. 

In these engagements he again exposed himself, 
to give valor to his troops. An officer who was 
in the fights wrote : — 

** Our army love their General very much, but they 
have one thing against him, which is the little care he 
takes of himself in any action. His personal bravery, 



1/2 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

and the desire he has of animating his troops by ex- 
ample, makes him fearless of danger. This occasions 
us much uneasiness. But Heaven, which has hitherto 
been his shield, I hope will still continue to guard so 
valuable a life." 

Frederick the Great is reputed to have called 
the Trenton campaign the most brilliant of the 
century. ''Ambiiscade, S2irprise, and strategem',' 
said General Heath, commenting on these battles, 
" are said to constitute the sublime part of the art 
of war ... all have the same object, namely, to 
deceive." 

Washington took a position at Morristown, 
commanding the road from New York to Phila- 
delphia. Hoping that the enemy would be led 
to go into winter quarters, without attempting to 
recover the lost ground in the Jerseys, he wrote 
to Reed that the numbers "ought to be a good 
deal magnified," and to Putnam, " You will give 
out your strength to be twice as great as it is." 

He received in his letters many references to 
what he had accomplished. 

From Robert Morris : — 

"The year 1776 is over, I am heartily glad of it, and 
hope you nor America will ever be plagued with such 
another." 

From John Hancock, President of Congress: — 

" As it is entirely to your wisdom and conduct the 
United States are indebted for the late success of their 



FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE 173 

arms, the pleasure you must naturally feel on the occa- 
sion will be pure and unmixed." 

From General Benedict Arnold : — 

" I beg leave, though late, to congratulate your Excel- 
lency on your success at Trenton. It was a most happy 
stroke and has greatly raised the sinking spirits of the 
country." 

The result was marked and immediate. Before 
these battles of Trenton and Princeton the militia 
of New Jersey were frightened, the militia of 
Pennsylvania disaffected, and the people so little 
favorable to the patriot cause that, in the retreat 
of over one hundred miles, the American army 
was joined by less than one hundred men. " In 
short," said Washington in December, "the con- 
duct of the Jerseys has been most infamous." 
After these victories the inhabitants, w^ho had 
been badly treated by the foreign troops, especially 
the Hessians, began to pull down the red rags 
which they had nailed to their doors as tokens 
of loyalty to Great Britain. Washington's most 
extreme expressions were habitually of depression, 
never of elation. When the cause was darkest, 
he said that if need be he would retreat beyond 
the Susquehanna River, and thence, if necessary, 
to the Alleghany Mountains; and he is reported to 
have said that, sooner than yield, he would found 
a new empire on the banks of the Mississippi. 



174 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 

Light- Horse Harry Lee relates that Washington, 
speaking of death, would often remark that, if 
the choice were his, he w^ould be unwilling to 
pass through life again. In his nature, always 
melancholy, there was a limit to the differences 
of mood that could be caused by success or 
failure. In flashes he showed discouragement, 
but on the whole his spirit, in failure and suc- 
cess, was to do the best that could be done, and 
leave the rest to Providence. 

A glimpse of him as he looked to the eye, at 
the period of these victories, may be had from a 
description left by a man who saw him three days 
before the crossing of the Delaware : — 

"His nose was apt to turn scarlet in a cold wind. 
He was standing near a small camp-fire, evidently lost 
in thought and making no effort to keep warm. He 
seemed six feet and a half in height, was as erect as an 
Indian, and did not for a moment relax from a military 
attitude. . . . He had a piece of woolen tied about his 
throat and was quite hoarse. . . . Washington's boots 
were enormous. They were number 13. His ordinary 
walking shoes were number 11. His hands were large 
in proportion, and he could not buy a glove to fit him 
and had to have his gloves made to order. His mouth 
was his strong feature, the lips being always tightly 
compressed. That day they were compressed so tightly 
as to be painful to look at." 

*' He was an enormous eater, but was content with 
bread and meat if he had plenty of it. But hunger 
seemed to put him in a rage." 



FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE 175 

Unflushed by success, Washington proceeded 
with cahnness along the lines most likely to serve 
his cause. His love of action — like his shrink- 
ing from criticism, his desire of public approval, 
his passions, and the general signs of his sensitive 
and emotional nature — was held in check with 
wonderful self-control. That the public esteem, 
which was so largely increased by this success, 
was already high, is shown by the action of Con- 
gress, before the news from Trenton, in making 
him practically dictator, at his own request. In 
making the suggestion, after recounting the bad 
results of referring everything to Congress, he 
went on : — 

" It may be said, that this is an application for 
powers that are too dangerous to be entrusted. I can 
only add, that desperate diseases require desperate 
remedies ; and I with truth declare, that I have no lust 
after power, but I wish with as much fervency as any 
man upon this wide-extended continent for an opportu- 
nity of turning the sword into the ploughshare." 

Greene also favored the dictatorship. He 
wrote to the President of Congress : — 

"The virtue of the people, at such an hour, is not 
to be trusted ; and I can assure you that the General 
will not exceed his powers, though he may sacrifice the 
cause. There never was a man that might be more 
safely trusted, nor a time when there was a louder 
call." 



lye GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Congress resolved that for six months Wash- 
ington was to have almost unlimited power in 
all military matters. Differences still arose, 
nevertheless. " I heartily wish Congress would 
inform me of the dispositions they make of the 
troops. Their not doing it disconcerts my ar- 
rangements and involves me in difficulties." An- 
other instance of sharp difference of opinion 
comes out in these lines to Robert Morris: — 

" The resolve to put in close confinement Lieutenant- 
Colonel Campbell and the Hessian field-officers, in order 
to retaliate General Lee's punishment upon them, is, in 
my opinion, injurious in every point of view, and must 
have been entered into without due attention to the 
consequences. Does Congress know how much the 
balance of prisoners is against us ; that the enemy 
have, at least, three hundred officers of ours in their 
possession, and we not fifty of theirs?" 

At the same time he was doing his best, diplo- 
matically, to see that our prisoners received proper 
treatment, and John Adams gave this opinion of 
his conduct : — 

"Washington is in the right, and has maintained 
his argument with a delicacy and dignity which do him 
much honor : He has hinted at the flagitious conduct of 
the two Howes towards their prisoners in so plain and 
clear a manner that he cannot be misunderstood, but 
yet decency and delicacy are preserved." 

To General Stephen, Washington wrote : — 

" I lament Captain Conway's loss ; but tho' my Indig- 
nation at such ungenerous Conduct of the Enemy might 



FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE 177 

at first prompt me to Retaliation, yet Humanity & Policy 
forbid the measure. Experience proves that their wan- 
ton Cruelty injures rather than benefits their Cause; 
That, with our Forbearance, justly secures to us, the 
attachment of all good men." 

He knew, with Henry, that the gentler game- 
ster was the soonest winner. 

An announcement, expressive of the enemy's 
angry view of the dictatorship, appeared in Gaines' 
Mercury, February 3d, 1777: — 

" It is confidently reported in London, that the Con- 
gress have devolved all their power upon Mr. Wash- 
ington, and appointed him dictator, in example of the 
Romans. The reason, if the fact be true, is very appar- 
ent. They find themselves in a slippery situation, and 
are glad to throw their burden upon the first simpleton 
of consequence that would take it. Washington has 
now no mean character to support. He must be the 
first or last of men, who would accept power upon such 
terms. But as the Congress are desperate, so is this 
gentleman. As the first instance of this protectorship, 
he has ordered all persons to take an active part in his 
concerns, and for the support of his authority, under 
pain of confiscation of all their properties." 

Another Tory organ, the New York Gazette, 
in the course of violently relieving its feelings 
about one of Washington's proclamations, showed 
the general tendency to expect more of him than 
of others. 

"That Mr. Washington, who 07tcewdiS esteemed a gentle- 
man, should forfeit that character by becoming the tool of 

M 



178 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

an impracticable ambition, is a matter of commiseration ; 
but, that he should be so contaminated by the vice of 
his associates as to lose all regard to the common forms 
of morality, all dignity of sentiment, and decency of 
conduct, was not to have been expected from a man 
who owned the least pride, or felt the least conscious- 
ness of virtue. . . . 'Tis an old and true observation, 
Magistratiis indicat Vinim, ' the Ruler shows the Man ' ; 
and we have nothing more to learn of this famous Mr. 
Washington." 

Howe's offer of pardon to all who would agree 
not to take part against the king had been suf- 
ficiently successful to lead Washington to a 
countermove, which was, however, sharply criti- 
cised, even by patriots, so strong was the jealousy 
of one-man power. The proclamation ordered 
everybody who had signed Howe's agreement to 
deliver up the certificate of protection, and take 
the oath of allegiance to the United States, grant- 
ing, however, permission to any who preferred the 
king's cause to go within the British lines. Tory 
charges, that he failed to carry out this permission, 
are founded on no evidence, and is against all his 
principles. Tilghman thus wrote to his father, on 
February 2 2d : — 

" If it pleases God to spare the life of the honestest 
man that I believe ever adorned human nature, I have 
no doubt of it. I think I know the sentiments of his 
heart, and in prosperity and adversity I never knew him 
utter a wish or drop an expression that did not tend to 



FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE 179 

the good of his country, regardless of his own interest 
He is blessed wherever he goes, for the Tory is pro- 
tected in person and property equally with the Whig. 
And indeed I often think more, for it is his maxim to 
convert by good usage and not by severity." 

The condition of the army was constantly get- 
ting worse. Liquor was short, and had to be 
denied the troops except when they were employed 
on tiring duty. The Eastern troops continued 
to be, as Washington said, " most wretchedly 
officered." The commissary department, re- 
cently organized, was deplorable. A Tory jour- 
nal printed a rumor that Washington had to tie 
up his breeches with strings, having parted with 
the buttons to buy the necessaries of life. 

When we hear too much about the degenerate 
public morality of our day and country, it might 
be well to read what Robert Morris wrote at this 
time to Washington : — 

'' . . . they are grown the most mercenary beings 
that exist. 

*' I do not confine this observation to the soldiery 
merely, but extend it to those who get their livings by 
feeding and entertaining them. These are the harpies 
that injure us much at this time. They keep the 
fellows drunk while the money holds out ; when it is 
gone, they encourage them to enlist for the sake of 
bounty, then to drinking again ; that bounty gone, and 
more money still wanted, they must enlist again with 
some other officer, receive a fresh bounty and get more 
drink, &c." 



l80 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

The militia continued to be of very little use. 
The commander said of them : — 

** If the Militia cannot be prevail'd upon to restrain the 
Foraging parties and to annoy and harass the Enemy 
in their excursions, and upon a march they will be of 
very little use to us, as I am sure they can never be 
brought fairly up to an attack in any serious matter." 

Soon after the Jersey victories Washington 
thus described his army : — 

" All our movements have been made with inferior 
numbers, and with a mixed, motley crew, who were here 
to-day, gone to-morrow, without assigning a reason, or 
even apprizing you of it." 

He was naturally, therefore, more than ever 
anxious to hide his real weakness. To Congress 
he wrote : — 

" I need not suggest to Congress the necessity of 
keeping our numbers concealed from the knowledge of 
the public. Nothing but a good face & false appear- 
ances have enabled us hitherto to deceive the enemy 
respecting our strength." 

If we are to get an intimate feeling of Wash- 
ington's temperament, we can hardly contrast too 
often his practices with his view of similar conduct 
in the British : — 

'' Some accounts make their loss in killed and wounded 
nearly 500, but the truth of this I do not undertake to 
vouch for, as they are equal to Indians in concealing 
their loss, by a removal of their dead, and were they 
to take up the business of scalping they would much 



FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE i8l 

resemble savages, in every respect ! — so much is the 
boasted generosity, and Glory of Britains fallen ! " 

At every step we see irascibility under the 
control of will. 

For his vohmteers, Washington had particular 
contempt, as " uneasy, impatient of command, 
ungovernable," claiming superior merit and the 
right to think and do as they pleased. Under his 
various disadvantages, he thought it best to risk 
nothing more for some time, and after the winter 
had gone quietly, and the spring had passed with- 
out important incidents, there was considerable 
complaint. One of the discouraging aspects of the 
situation was the behavior of the officers. Some 
had to be reasoned with over imaginary slights, 
others reprimanded for arguing instead of obeying. 
Some were reported to Congress for withholding 
the pay of their soldiers. A complicated problem 
grew out of the presence of foreign officers, who 
now began to pour in. Washington's own attitude 
was always suspicious of foreigners. Among the 
officers from France, the greater number, he was 
convinced, " were adventurers," as swarms were 
sent over, with little recommendation, by the 
American representatives in France, with promises 
of commissions. He wished to oblige France, as 
Cono^ress did, but feared the effect of so much 
added inefficiency. Of the foreign officers only 
two proved of great value. One was Baron 



l82 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 

Steuben, whose skill in drill rapidly improved 
the discipline of the army. In accomplishing 
his task, he gave rein to his emotional nature, 
and added what English expletives he had acquired 
to his German and French. 

" Venez, Walker, mon ami ! Sacre de gaucherie 
of dese badauds ; je n'en puis plus ! I can curse 
dem no more ! " 

The other useful recruit was a man of twenty, 
whom the reserved commander took immediately 
to his heart. At a dinner in France some talk 
about the Declaration of Independence suggested 
to a guest that the American cause was one in 
which a worthy and theatrical part might be 
played by a youth at once moral, dashing, and 
ambitious. He had been much at the French 
court, and had, according to so high an authority 
as Prince Talleyrand, acquired a gentleness and 
suavity of manner which, even at the height of 
the Revolution, he never lost ; and doubtless these 
manners were part of the charm which he exer- 
cised over the form-loving and aristocratic Wash- 
ington, who met him at a dinner in Philadelphia, 
soon after his arrival in America. Another attrac- 
tion was his dash, a quality by which Washington 
was always pleased. Lafayette had escaped from 
France in disguise, with the government emis- 
saries on his track, taking his future in his own 
hands, and leaving his young wife with one child, 



FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE 183 

and expecting another. This high-spirited adven- 
turer, finding that Congress was inchned to treat 
him a Uttle coldly, explained that he wished to 
serve without pay, a suggestion which changed 
the views of the legislators and helped him to 
win the confidence of Washington, to whom the 
lust for glory seemed a much higher quality than 
the lust for gold. Napoleon, who had been opposed 
by Lafayette in 18 15, said at St. Helena: — 

** Lafayette was a man of no ability, either in civil or 
military life ; his understanding was confined to narrow 
bounds ; his character was full of dissimulation, and 
swayed by vague ideas of liberty, which, in him, were 
undefined and ill-digested." 

Under this portrait by an enemy lies the truth 
that Lafayette was more winning than strong. 
He was brave and graceful, and Washington 
soon made him useful. 

Lafayette says in his Memoirs : — 

** General Washington came to Philadelphia. There, 
for the first time, M. de Lafayette saw this great man. 
Although surrounded by officers and citizens, the maj- 
esty of his face and form made it impossible to mis- 
take him. He was no less distinguished by his affable 
and noble greeting. M. de Lafayette returned his com- 
pliments. Invited by the General to establish himself 
in his household, he has from that day looked upon it 
as his own, and with this simplicity were united two 
friends whose liking and confidence were strengthened 
by the greatest interests." 



l84 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

This was his first impression of the troops : — 

" Some miles from Philadelphia (the army) was 
waiting until the enemy's movements were decided. 
The General reviewed them. M. de Lafayette arrived 
the same day. About ii,ooo men, rather badly armed, 
dressed still worse, made a singular spectacle. In this 
motley and often naked state the best garments were 
hunting shirts, of grey cloth, used in Carolina. . . . 

** ' We ought to be embarrassed,' said Gen. Washing- 
ton, on arriving, *to show ourselves to an officer who 
has just left the French troops.' 

*' ' It is to learn and not to teach that I am here," 
repHed M. de Lafayette, and this tone succeeded, be- 
cause it was not common among the Europeans." 

He received a commission as major-general, 
and, although Congress intended the rank to be 
merely honorary, Lafayette was anxious for a 
command, and Washington was inclined to give 
him one, as soon as he had fairly tested him, 
partly because he learned to see his uses at the 
French court. After Lafayette was wounded, in 
a rather gallant endeavor to stop the retreat at 
Brandywine, Washington interested himself more 
actively in getting him a command, saying that 
at that battle he showed " a large share of bravery 
and military ardor." Later he wrote to Washing- 
ton : — 

" The only favor I have asked of your Commissioners 
in France has been, not to be under any orders but those 
of General Washington. I seem to have had an antici- 
pation of our future friendship ; and what I have done 



FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE 185 

out of esteem and respect for your Excellency's name 
and reputation, I should do now out of mere love for 
General Washington himself." 

The principal object of the commander-in- 
chief, during 1777 was to make Howe think he 
had a large force, while at the same time he 
made, if possible, his critics and Congress imder- 
stand that his lack of success, for a long time after 
Princeton, was due to small numbers and bad 
equipment. The Howes were not active. Possi- 
bly they feared the American militia as much as 
Washington mistrusted it. General Lee's expla- 
nation of their lack of enterprise was that Sir 
William Howe had never recovered from the 
effect of Bunker Hill, where he had seen the 
trained British regulars fail to show the expected 
superiority to the rawest militia. They kept 
Washington marching hither and thither, trying 
to guess the destination of the fleet and army, 
until midsummer, when their intention to attack 
Philadelphia became clear. Although Washing- 
ton looked upon the loss of this city as a mis- 
fortune, John Adams wrote to his wife as early as 
June 2d : "I had rather they should come to 
Philadelphia than not. . . . This town has been 
a dead weight upon us. It would be a dead 
weight upon the enemy." This sounds much like 
Franklin's famous answer, when told that Howe 
had taken Philadelphia, " Philadelphia has taken 



1 86 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Howe." Washington, in August, halted his 
army at Germantown, and gave orders that no 
soldier or officer should enter Philadelphia, as " it 
will only tend to debauch them." He had come 
from his position in the Jerseys, which covered 
the North River and Philadelphia, because the 
cry was so great for the protection of the seat of 
Congress. The first clash came on September 
nth, when the advancing British crossed the 
Brandywine and attacked the American right. 
As the information he had been able to get about 
their movements was uncertain and contradictory, 
Washington had not been able to dispose his 
troops favorably, and those first engaged were 
forced to retire before they could be reenforced. 
Meantime, another division of the enemy crossed 
the river and attacked Wayne's division, which 
also retired. Washington, at midnight, weary 
with much exertion, directed Pickering to write 
to Congress. He read the letter, approved it, 
and " with perfect composure," as Pickering re- 
lates, directed him to add a consolatory hope that 
another day w^ould give a more fortunate result. 
Greene, whose division had covered the retreat, 
asked that his soldiers might receive recognition, 
but W^ashington refused to mention the division 
in his report, saying, it is related by Custis : 
" You, sir, are considered in this army as my 
favorite officer; your division is composed of 



FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE 187 

southrons, my more immediate countrymen. 
Such are my reasons." 

Lafayette in his Memoirs gives a ghmpse of 
Washington's personal behavior during these 
movements : — 

*' After having threatened the Delaware, the English 
fleet had again disappeared. During several days it 
was the subject of jests, which ceased when it arrived 
in the Chesapeake. To be near the point of disembark- 
ing the patriot army crossed the City. Their heads 
ornamented with green branches, marching to the sound 
of the drum and fifes, before the eyes of all the citizens, 
these soldiers, despite their nudity, made a pleasant 
sight. The general shone at their head, M. de La- 
fayette at his side. The army took its position on the 
heights of Wilmington, and that of the enemy disem- 
barked in Elk River, at the foot of Chesapeake bay. 
The very day that it landed. Gen. Washington exposed 
himself very imprudently. After a long reconnoissance 
he was assailed by a storm, on a very dark night. He 
entered a farmhouse, very near the enemy, and his 
unwillingness to change his mind kept him there, with 
Gen. Greene, M. de Lafayette, and their aides ; but on 
leaving at daybreak, he admitted that the most insignifi- 
cant traitor could have been his destruction." 

To a protesting correspondent, however, Wash- 
ington made no such admission : — 

"Accept my sincere thanks for your Sollicitude on 
my Acct., and for ye good advice contained in your 
little paper of the 27th Ulto. — at the same time that I 
assure, you that It is not my wish to avoid any danger 
which duty requires me to encounter. I can as confi- 



1 88 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

dently add, that it is not my intention to run unneces- 
sary risques. In the Instance given by you, I was acting 
precisely in the line of my duty, but not in the dangerous 
situation you have been led to believe. I was recon- 
noitring, but I had a strong party of Horse with me. 
I was, as (I afterwards found) in a disaffected House at 
the head of Elk, but I was equally guarded agt. friend 
and Foe. The information of danger, then, came not 
from me." 

Washington calculated that his loss was not 
greater than that of the enemy. He -rested his 
army a few days, and then prepared to attack 
the British, but was prevented by a heavy rain. 
Howe soon after advanced toward Philadelphia 
with a force estimated at eight thousand, the regular 
continental troops being about the same number, 
with three thousand militia. A council of war near 
the end of September decided by ten to five against 
an attack. Many of the men were barefoot, and the 
inhabitants were disaffected. Cornwallis entered 
Philadelphia (at the head of the British vanguard), 
September 26th, the band playing " God save the 
King." Most of the Quakers received the victors 
cordially, and the mass of loyalists were in high 
spirits, but the Americans were not as discouraged 
as it had been feared they would be. As the 
Americans, stationed with their defences on the 
Delaware, interrupted Howe's communications 
with the sea, he was preparing to attack them, 
and dividing his forces for the purpose, when 



FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE 189 

Washington decided to fall upon him unawares. 
He marched all night to Germantown, where the 
main body of the British was encamped, and fell 
upon it at sunrise, October 4th, with a bayonet 
charge. The British were surprised and thrown 
into confusion. A thick fog, made worse by the 
powder, caused the American troops to mistake 
their own regiments for British, a panic resulted, 
and they fled, apparently losing twice as many 
men as the enemy. All estimates are made more 
difficult by Washington's habit of reporting the 
losses with a view to the effect rather than to 
accuracy. 

Both armies remained quiet for some time, 
Washington earnestly hoping for good news 
from the North, where General Burgoyne was 
on the brink of destruction. Pickering,^ who 
never saw the general's equanimity desert him in 
disaster, was present when he was overcome by the 
tidings from the North. Rumors of General 
Gates's victory had already begun to float about, 
and it was hinted that if they were true Washing- 
ton's days as commander-in-chief were numbered. 
These suggestions had reached Washington. On 
October i8th, he read an account of the victory. 
Not a word was spoken. " Washington unfolded 
the document, and proceeded to read it aloud, 

1 See Pickering to Peters, " Life of Pickering," Vol 2, p. 107 
seq. 



IQO GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 

Pickering and Palfrey watching his expression. 
As he read, his voice began to falter, his articula- 
tion became slow, and broke under the intensity 
of his feelings ; as it became apparent that the 
letter was announcing the surrender of Burgoyne 
and his entire army, he could read no more, but 
passed it to Colonel Palfrey, signifying that he 
wished him to finish it, which he did aloud." 

As he concluded, Washington lifted his hands 
and face toward heaven, with an expression of 
gratitude. 

A council of war, on October 29th, decided 
against attacking the British in Philadelphia, but 
Washington spread the report that, heavily reen- 
forced by troops from General Gates and by mili- 
tia, he intended to attack the city. " Next to being 
strong," he said, "it is best to be thought so." 
Nearly a month later, November 24th, another 
council of war was held, and again it was decided 
unwise to attack. Washington believed that 
Howe was preparing to move against him, as he 
was. No decisive move was made, however, and 
Washington considered the subject of winter 
quarters. Congress wished a winter campaign, 
but was finally satisfied that before any active 
movement could be made the regular army must 
be increased. At this time Mrs. Washington 
wrote to a friend : " The General is well, but 
much worn with fatigue and anxiety. I never 



FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE 191 

knew him to be so anxious as now, for the poor 
soldiers are without sufficient clothing and food, 
and many of them are barefooted." 

The condition of the army, and its movements 
toward winter quarters, are graphically struck off 
in a diary kept by Dr. Waldo, a surgeon, on the 
army, from which the following are extracts:^ — 

** Dec. 6. Our men were under Arms all Day and 
this Night also — as our Wise General was determined 
not to be attacked Napping." 

*' Dec. 8. Provision & Whiskey very scarce. Were 
Soldiers to have plenty of food and Rum, I believe they 
would Storm Tophet. . . . We were remanded back 
with several draughts of Rum in our frozen bellies — 
which made us so glad we all fell a Sleep in our open 
huts — nor experienced the Coldness of the Night 'till 
we found ourselves much stiffened by it in the morning." 

*' Dec. II. I am prodigious Sick & cannot get any 
thing comfortable — what in the name of Providence 
can I do with a fit of Sickness in this place where noth- 
ing appears pleasing to the Sicken'd Eye & nauseating 
Stomach. But I doubt not Providence will find out a 
way for my relief. But I cannot eat Beef if I starve — 
for my stomach positively refuses such Company, and 
how can I help that ? " 

''Dec. 12. We are ordered to march over the River. 
It snows — I'm Sick — eat nothing — No Whiskey, — 
No Baggage — Lord — Lord— Lord. The Army were 
'till Sun Rise crossing the River — some at the Waggon 
Bridge & some at the Raft Bridge below. Cold & Un- 
comfortable." 

1 Ntst. Mag., Vol. 5, p. 129 seq. 



192 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 

"Since we are to Winter here — ist. There is plenty 
of Wood and Water. 2ndly. There are but a few fami- 
lies for the soldiers to Steal from. . . . 4ly. There are 
warm sides of Hills to erect huts on. 5ly. They will be 
heavenly Minded like Jonah when in the belly of a great 
Fish. 61y. They will not become home Sick as is some- 
times the Case when Men live in the Open World. 
Since the reflections which must naturally arise from 
their present habitation, will lead them to the more noble 
thoughts of employing their leizure hours in filling their 
knapsacks with such materials as may be necessary on 
the Journey to another Home." 

''Dec. 14th. I am sick — discontented and out of 
humour. Poor food — hard lodging — Cold Weather — 
fatigue — Nasty Cloaths — nasty Cooking — Vomit half 
my time — Smoak'd out of my senses — the Devil's in't 

— I can't Endure it . . . all Confusion — smoke Cold 

— hunger & filthyness. A pox on my bad luck. Here 
comes a bowl of beef Soup — full of burnt leaves and 
dirt, sickish enough to make a hector spue — away with 
it Boys." 

** Dec. 22. The Lord send that one Commissary of 
Purchases may live on, Fire Cake & Water, 'till their 
glutted Gutts are turned to Paste-board." 

" Dec. 26th. Why don't his Excellency rush in and 
retake the City, in which he will doubtless find much 
Plunder .'' Because he knows better than to leave his Post 
and be catch'd Uke a d — d fool cooped up in the City." 

He thinks that Washington by his skirmishes, has 

'' made many proselytes to the Shrine of Liberty by 
these little successes — and by the prudence — calmness 

— sedateness — & wisdom with which he facilitates all 
his Opperations." * 



FROM TRENTON TO VALLEY FORGE 193 

He also speaks with approval of his not throw- 
ing away the lives of his soldiers, & says it ought 
not to be called an inglorious campaign. 

" Dec. 19. So much talk about discharges among the 
Officers — & so many are discharged — his E — y lately 
expressed his fears of being left Alone with the Sol- 
diers only." 

On December 23d, Washington reported 2899 
men unfit for duty on account of nakedness. 
Lacking blankets, the soldiers had to sit up by the 
fires at night. Yet this terrible winter had its 
uses. Valley Forge was on the western side of the 
Schuylkill, in the first step of the hills which 
reach to the Blue Ridge, a position very strong 
and also convenient to fertile country. Washing- 
ton kept his main body compactly there, in huts, 
believing it gave a better opportunity for improve- 
ment in discipline than would be offered in any 
town, suffering for his soldiers, but probably not 
wholly regretting that Howe s soldiers were enjoy- 
ing the demoralizing pleasures of Philadelphia. 



CHAPTER XI 

ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 

" Why should I expect to be exempt from censure, the unfailing 
lot of an elevated station ? Merit and talents, with which I can have 
no pretensions of rivalship, have ever been subject to it. My heart 
tells me, that it has been my unremitted aim to do the best that 
circumstances would permit ; yet I may have been very often mis- 
taken in my judgment of the means, and may in many instances 
deserve the imputation of error." — Washington. 

While encamped at Valley Forge, Washington 
saw the most serious designs ever made against 
him reach their height. Long in formation, they 
were nourished in the main by the same human 
weaknesses that made men weary of hearing Aris- 
tides called the Just. Can we wonder at the 
defection of lesser minds, when one so powerful 
as John Adams, with every facility for knowing 
the inner facts, had fallen aw^ay from his approval 
of the commander.? He, "the main-mast" of the 
ship of state, was, with his New England jealousy 
of power, surfeited with Washington's praises and 
eager for change. When Burgoyne surrendered 
to Gates, Adams wrote to his wife : — 

V Congress will appoint a thanksgiving ; and one 
cause of it ought to be, that the glory of turning the 

194 



ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 195 

tide of arms is not immediately due to the Commander- 
in-Chief nor to Southern troops. If it had been, idol- 
atry and adulation would have been unbounded ; so 
excessive as to endanger our liberties for what I know. 
Now, we can allow a certain citizen to be wise, virtuous, 
and good without thinking him a deity or a saviour." 

In a manuscript sketch, by Dr. Benjamin 
Rush, Adams is quoted in debate as follows: — 

" I have been distressed to see some of our members 
disposed to idolize an image which their own hands 
have molten. I speak of the superstitious veneration 
which is paid to General Washington." 

Adams was one of the men who had recom- 
mended Gates for the almost independent com- 
mand in the North. The New England delegates 
signed the paper, which was written by Samuel 
Adams, in this order: John Adams, Nathaniel 
Folsom, Samuel Adams, Henry Marchant, El- 
bridge Gerry, E. Dyer, William Williams, and 
it is to be assumed that all of these men were 
now hostile to the commander-in-chief. It is 
related that when Burgoyne entered Gates's tent, 
after the surrender at Saratoga, he proposed the 
health of Washington, probably not knowing 
with how little cordiality the toast was received. 
To be fair to Adams, it should be remembered 
that in his autobiography, he takes the trouble 
to deny his complicity in this Conw^ay cabal, 
"because that insolent blasphemer of things 



196 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

sacred and transcendent, libeller of all that is 
good, Tom Paine, has more than once asserted 
in print that I was one of a faction, in the fall 
of the year 1777, against General Washington." 
Probably he went no further than his own words 
prove him to have gone. The impression that 
he was in a plot, how^ever, so far prevailed in the 
army that Lafayette, intimate as he was with 
Washington, mentioned both of the Adamses, as 
well as Francis Lightfoot Lee and Richard 
Henry Lee, as belonging to the Gates party, 
although he is said later to have modified this 
opinion. Hamilton spoke of the cabal as exist- 
ing "in the most extensive sense," called it a 
monster, and attributed its failure to get rid of 
Washington to the fact that it " unmasked its 
batteries too soon." The only members abso- 
lutely known to have been concerned in the 
movement are Major General Conway, from 
whom the cabal takes its name, Thomas Mifflin, 
the Quartermaster-General, and Gates. Gates 
and Mifflin, when they joined the service, pro- 
fessed to be the commander's friends, and it was 
mainly through Washington's influence that 
Congress overcame its prejudice against English- 
born citizens enough to make exceptions of 
Gates and Charles Lee. At Cambridge, Wash- 
ington felt compelled to refuse commands which 
they desired, to Gates and to Mifflin. After 



ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 197 

Gates received the appointment to the North, he 
was even insulting. He refused to send Wash- 
ington reenforcements requested, and even failed 
to report to him, communicating the news of 
his victories to Congress alone. There were 
in Congress so many members either opposed 
to the chief personally, or jealous of the great 
military power granted him, that a board of 
war, of w^hich Gates and Mififlin were members, 
was constituted, in order to divide the power with 
him. One of their moves was to plan an expe- 
dition to Canada, which never came to anything, 
and which Washington privately called " the 
child of folly," and to offer the command of it to 
Lafayette, in the hope of attaching him to their 
cause; but the loyal young F^renchman kept 
Washington informed of all he learned. He 
visited Gates, found him at table with his friends, 
and, as the guests were about to leave the table, 
emphasized his sentiments by proposing one 
toast that had been omitted, " the commander- 
in-chief." Immediately after Burgoyne's sur- 
render. General Daniel Morgan, as he related 
himself, going to see Gates on business, was 
informed by that worthy that the army was 
extremely dissatisfied with Washington. Mor- 
gan sternly requested him not to mention that 
subject again, and added that he should never 
serve under any other commander. Another 



198 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

friend, who helped Washington to desirable 
information, was Henry Laurens, who, as Presi- 
dent of Congress, instead of reading to that body 
an anonymous attack on the general, containing 
the phrase, " the people of America have been 
guilty of idolatry, in making a man their god," 
sent it to Washington, who said in his reply : — 

" My enemies take an ungenerous advantage of me. 
They know the delicacy of my situation, and that motives 
of policy deprive me of the defence I might otherwise 
make against their insidious attacks. They know I can- 
not combat their insinuations, however injurious, without 
disclosing secrets which it is of the utmost moment to 
conceal." 

That Dr. Benjamin Rush was warmly in the 
movement is almost certain. Washington attrib- 
uted to him an anonymous attack, dated Janu- 
ary 12th, 1778, addressed to Patrick Henry, who 
immediately sent it to the commander-in-chief. — 
After Burgoyne's surrender Rush wrote to John 
Adams : — 

*' I have heard several officers who have served under 
General Gates compare his army to a well regulated 
family. The same gentlemen have compared Gen'l 
Washington's imitation of an army to an unformed 
mob. Look at the characters of both ! The one on 
the pinnacle of military glory — exulting in the success 
of schemes planned with wisdom, & executed with 
vigor and bravery — and above all see a country saved 
by their exertions. See the other outgenerald and 



ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 199 

twice beated — obliged to witness the march of a body 
of men only half their number thro' 140 miles of a thick 
settled country — forced to give up a city the capitol 
of a state & after all outwitted by the same army in a 
retreat. If our congress can witness these things with 
composure, and suffer them to pass without an enquiry, 
I shall think we have not shook off monarchial preju- 
dices, and that like the Israelites of old we worship the 
work of our hands." 

Washington apparently realized from the begin- 
ning that the community was with him. The 
principal opposition was among legislators. As 
early as February, 1777, debates in Congress 
showed a considerable number of members hostile 
to the oeneral. The method in which the move- 
ment finally went up in smoke was rather dramatic. 
General Conway, the chief conspirator, was a 
boastful foreigner, foisted into high rank by Con- 
gress against the wishes of the commander-in- 
chief, who had warned Richard Henry Lee that 
Conway's promotion would " give a fatal blow to 
the existence of the army," and even went so 
far as to hint at resignation, if Conway should 
be promoted, but Congress nevertheless made 
him a major-general. When Washington received 
sufficiently definite material for action, he sent 
this laconic note to Conway: — 

**Sir: a letter which I received last night contained 
the following paragraph. 

" * In a letter from General Conway to General Gates 



200 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

he says, Heaven has been determined to save yotir coun- 
try, or a ivcak Genei'al and bad counsellors would have 
ruined it' I am, Sir, your humble servant." 

Lord Sterling first told Washington about the 
letter, which was afterward seen by Lafayette. 
Conway tried various lies to escape the conse- 
quences of this discovery, but it was too late, and 
publicity meant the speedy death of the cabal. 
Conway soon found his position untenable, and 
returned to Europe. The dissatisfied party did 
not dissolve all at once, however. On December 
ist, 1779, General Sullivan wrote to Washington 
that the cabal still existed, and was endeavoring 
to persuade Congress to divide the power among 
three or four commanders answerable only to 
Congress. " Could you have believed, four years 
since, that those adulators, those persons so ten- 
derly and friendly used, as were Gates, MifBin, 
Reed, and Tudor, w^ould become your secret and 
bitter, though unprovoked, enemies '^. " It was 
after the exposure, too, that John Laurens wrote 
to his father : — 

"■ I think, then, the Commander-in-chief of this army 
is not sufficiently informed of all that is known by Con- 
gress of European affairs. Is it not a galling circum- 
stance, for him to collect the most important intelligence 
piece-meal, and as they choose to give it, from gentlemen 
who come from York } Apart the chagrin which he 
must necessarily feel at such an appearance of slight it 
should be considered that in order to settle his plan of 



ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 20I 

Operations for the ensuing campaign he should take into 
view the present state of European affairs, and Congress 
should not leave him in the dark. 

" If ever there was a man in the world whose modera- 
tion and patriotism fitted him for the command of a 
republican army, he is, and he merits an unrestrained 
confidence." 

A fact mentioned by Laurens is that Washing- 
ton thought arming the negroes a resource that 
should not be neglected. The enthusiastic young 
man wished to free his own slaves, in order to arm 
them, and Washington's only objection to that 
grew out of " pity for a man who would be less rich 
than he might be." Some use was made of the 
blacks a little later. Over the employment of 
Indians, meantime, the usual recrimination went 
on. It was at Washington's suggestion that Mor- 
gan's famous riflemen imitated the savages. 

** It occurs to me, that, if you were to dress a company 
or two of true woodsmen in the right Indian style, and 
let them make an attack accompanied with screaming 
and yelling, as the Indians do, it would have very good 
consequences, especially if as little as possible were said 
or known of the matter beforehand." 

In his suggestions to a committee of Congress, 
dated January 28th, 1778, he remarked: — 

** The enemy have set every engine at work against 
us, and have actually called savages, and even our own 
slaves to their assistance ; — would it not be well to 
employ two or three hundred Indians against General 
Howe's army the ensuing campaign .'' " 



202 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 

Negotiation, meantime, was accomplishing 
much on the French mind, especially as conducted 
by Benjamin Franklin, "that insiduous man," 
as he was called by King George. His Majesty, 
who in the preceding June had written Lord 
North, "in my opinion, the Americans will treat 
before winter," now began to doubt the possibility 
of conquest. He began to see a little danger 
that the warning words of Chatham might be 
true : — 

" You cannot conquer the Americans ! You talk of 
your powerful forces to disperse their army; why — " 
here he raised, and showed, the support to his gouty 
limbs — "I might as well talk of driving them before me 
with this crutch ! . . . You have got nothing in America 
but stations. You have been three years teaching them 
the Art of War, and they are apt scholars." 

On the day before the news of Saratoga arrived 
in England, Gibbon wrote as follows to Holroyd 
from the House of Commons: " There seems to 
be an universal desire for peace, even on the 
most humble conditions. Are you still fierce .f^" 
After the news he wrote : " Dreadful news indeed. 
... A general cry for peace." He had already 
observed, " The Americans (they have almost lost 
the appellation of rebels)." George HI. wrote 
to Lord North in January, " Perhaps the time 
mav come when it will be wise to abandon all 
North America but Canada, Nova Scotia, and 



ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 203 

the Floridas, but then the generaUty of the nation 
must see it first in that Hght, but to treat with 
independence can never be possible." When he 
heard of the Conway cabal, however, he thought 
that the "discontent among the leaders" in 
America might facilitate the task of bringing 
" that deluded country " to some reasonable 
ideas. 

In spite of the favorable trend of European 
sentiment, and the encouragement given to the 
Americans by Burgoyne's surrender, there was 
so much discontent, growing largely from the 
slowness of Congress in meeting the needs of 
the army, that in March Washington wrote to the 
President of Congress that since August between 
two and three hundred officers had resigned their 
commissions. The desertions amonor the starved 
and frozen soldiers were many, and the horses died 
for lack of forage. Happily, the situation was 
lightened by treaties of commerce and alliance, 
made between the United States and France on 
February 6th. The impression grew in England 
that only Lord Chatham could save the situation, 
but the king was unwilling to accept " that perfidi- 
ous man " as prime minister. He declared that he 
would surrender the crown first. Washinstons 
own reputation in Great Britain must have been 
increased by the enthusiasm of the popular Gen- 
eral Burgoyne, who, in Parliament, on his return, 



204 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

read a letter from the American commander, and 
added, " I think the letter, though from an enemy, 
does honor to the human heart." To Washing- 
ton he wrote, " I find the character, which I 
before knew to be respectable, is also perfectly 
amiable ; and I should have few greater private 
gratifications in seeing our melancholy contest at 
an end, than that of cultivating your friendship." 
Washington replied amiably. Knowing the fav- 
orable opinion of the American troops which 
Burgoyne had formed after his surrender, and 
fearing he might see things which would lead 
him to change his mind, W^ashington had en- 
deavored to induce Congress to send him home 
as quickly as possible. Possibly Burgoyne's enthu- 
siasm over Washington would have been slightly 
cooled had he known that it was he who suggested 
to Congress that the British army should be forced 
to pay for their provisions in coin, although by the 
articles of surrender they were to pay at the same 
rate as the Americans, who paid in paper; thus 
forcing three times the amount really agreed 
upon. In several respects Burgoyne was treated 
dishonestly by Congress, but he probably had no 
reason to suspect the complicity of Washington, 
who, indeed, was innocent except in this one 
suggestion, which shows the great and virtuous 
leader taking one of his few liberties with the 
moral law. " The payment, too, I should appre- 



ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 205 

hend," Washington wrote, " ought to be in coin, 
as it will enable us to administer some relief to our 
unfortunate officers and men who are in captivity," 
— a virtuous end, no doubt, although a Jesuitical 
means. It is no wonder that the indignant Bur- 
goyne imagined that Great Britain would not 
hesitate to pay thirty thousand pounds " to pub- 
lish such a procedure to the world." Many readers 
will be shocked at such advice from their inhuman 
hero, and doubtless resentful that a biographer 
should relate it, but they will be no worse off if 
they realize that Washington was a man, although 
a strong and earnest one, with emotions, interests, 
temptations. War was hell then, as it is now. It 
inflamed the passions, jaundiced the vision, and 
often darkened the heart. Washington suffered 
with his soldiers, and came near to hating his 
enemies. Big things enraged him, and little 
things irked him. Heroism becomes no less 
real when heroes become human. The profane 
world has no name of better mspiration than the 
name of Washington. His errors are trifles, his 
moral victories greater even than his external 
success, and his glory that of a man, with all a 
man's inner difficulties, and almost more than a 
man's strength to triumph over them. 

In France Washington's name was rapidly 
increasing in honor, and during the year a medal 
was issued, struck at Paris, in 1778, by direction 



206 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

of Voltaire, with the legend, " Washington re- 
unit par un rare assemblage les talens du guerrier 
et les vertus du sage!' 

The French alliance was celebrated at Valley 
Forge, and an officer who was present at the 
ceremonies wrote : — 

"When the General took his leave, there was a uni- 
versal clap, with loud huzzas, which continued till he 
had proceeded a quarter of a mile, during which time 
there were a thousand hats tossed in the air. His Excel- 
lency turned round with his retinue, and huzzaed several 
times." 

The offers contained in Lord North's so-called 
conciliatory bills, which removed certain taxes and 
provided for commissioners to treat for peace, were 
unanimously rejected by Congress, on the ground 
that they did not meet American expectations, and 
that the United States would treat with no British 
commissioners unless the fleets and armies were 
withdrawn. Washington called them " a com- 
pound of fear, art, and villainy, and these ingredi- 
ents so equally mixed, that I scarcely know which 
predominates." 

He wrote quite confidently to his friends, in 
these Valley Forge days, and gave (to his stepson) 
the probability of securing independence as a rea- 
son for holding his land. 

On June i8th a change in the situation was pro- 
duced by the evacuation of Philadelphia by the 



ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 207 

British, whose destination was unknown. General 
Arnold, who had not yet entirely recovered from a 
wound received at Saratoga, was sent into the 
city, where he began living with ostentation, 
involving himself in pecuniary difficulties. Of 
the plan pursued by the detachments which 
crossed the Delaware and pursued the British, 
Hamilton wrote : — 

" When we came to Hopewell Township, the General 
unluckily called a council of war, the result of which 
would have done honor to the most honorable society of 
midwives, and to them only. The purport was, that we 
should keep at a comfortable distance from the enemy, 
and keep up a vain parade of annoying them by detach, 
ment. In pursuance of this idea, a detachment of 1500 
men was sent off under General Scott to join the other 
troops near the enemy's lines. General Lee \w2iS primum 
mobile of this sage plan ; and was even opposed to send- 
ing so considerable a force. The General, on mature 
reconsideration of what had been resolved on, determined 
to pursue a different line of conduct at all hazards." 

Greene, Lafayette, and Wayne declared in writ- 
ing that they favored drawing the enemy into a 
general engagement, if it could be done under 
proper circumstances. Washington was probably 
of this opinion, for political reasons. He gave 
command of all of the advance forces to Lafayette 
after Lee had refused the post. Lee, however, 
soon changed his mind, putting Washington in a 
difficult position, from which he was freed by the 



2o8 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 

amiability of Lafayette, who gave up the command 
to Lee. Washington by this time had less confi- 
dence in Lee than he had at the beginning of the 
war. " His temper and plans were too versatile 
and violent to attract my admiration," he wrote. At 
Valley Forge, when Washington was administer- 
ing the oath of allegiance to the general officers, by 
order of Congress, Lee is said to have hesitated, on 
this ground, " As to King George, I am ready 
enough to absolve myself from all allegiance to 
him, but I have some scruples about the Prince 
of Wales." The surrounding officers burst into 
laughter, even Washington smiled, and Lee took 
the oath. 

One of the officers most devoted to Washington 
was the dashing General Morgan, who told the 
following story, probably relating to these days 
before the battle of Monmouth,i when the armies 
were near together, the British encamped at Mon- 
mouth Court- House, the Americans six or seven 
miles away. Washington called the leader of the 
riflemen to him, at night, and said : — 

*' I have sent for you Colonel Morgan, to entrust to 
your courage and sagacity, a small but very important 
enterprise. I wish you to reconnoitre the enemy's Hues, 
with a view to your ascertaining correctly the positions 
of their newly constructed redoubts ; also of the encamp- 
ments of the British troops that have lately arrived, and 

iCustis, "'Recollections," p- 310 seq. 




George Washington 



From a portrait by Rembrandt Peale. Painted in September, 1795. In the posses- 
sion of W. B. Coleman, Esq. 



ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 209 

those of their Hessian auxilHaries. Select, sir, an officer, 
non-commissioned officer, and about twenty picked men, 
and under cover of the night proceed with all possible 
caution, get as near as you can, learn all you can, and by 
day-dawn retire and make your report to headquarters. 
But mark me. Colonel Morgan, mark me well : On no 
account whatever are you to bring on any skirmishing 
with the enemy. If discovered, make a speedy retreat; 
let nothing induce you to fire a single shot. I repeat, 
sir, that no force of circumstances will excuse the dis- 
charge of a single rifle on your part, and for the extreme 
preciseness of these orders, permit me to say that I have 
my reasons." Filling two glasses of wine, the general 
continued, *' And now, Colonel Morgan, we will drink a 
good night, and success to your enterprise." 

Morgan accomplished his task. While resting 
on the grass, during their return, the soldiers saw 
some British horse ride along the road, as if 
directly into their unintended ambuscade. The 
temptation was too strong, and the Americans 
fired. After they reached the camp, Morgan 
was reflecting upon his offence, when Hamilton 
appeared on horseback and accosted the colonel 
with, " I am ordered, Colonel Morgan, to ascertain 
whether the firing just now heard proceeded from 
your detachment." — " It did, sir," replied Mor- 
gan. " Then, Colonel, I am further ordered to 
require your immediate attendance upon his 
Excellency, who is fast approaching." Morgan 
bowed, and Hamilton, wheeling his horse, gal- 
loped back to rejoin his commander. 



210 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 

Washington arrived. " Can it be possible, 
Colonel Morgan, that my aide-de-camp has in- 
formed me aright ? Can it be possible, after the 
orders you received last evening, that the firing 
we have heard proceeded from your detachment ? 
Surely, sir, my orders were so explicit as not to 
be easily misunderstood." Morgan uncovered, 
and replied : " Your excellency's orders were per- 
fectly well understood ; and, agreeably to the 
same, I proceeded with a select party to recon- 
noitre the enemy's lines by night. We succeeded 
even beyond our expectations, and I w^as return- 
ing to headquarters to make my report when, 
having halted a few minutes to rest the men, we 
discovered a party of horse coming out from the 
enemy's lines. They came up immediately to 
the spot where we lay concealed by the brush- 
wood. There they halted, and gathered up to- 
gether like a flock of partridges, affording me so 
tempting an opportunity of annoying my enemies 
that — that — may it please your excellency — 
flesh and blood could not refrain." 

Washington forgave him, and Morgan ex- 
plained : " What could the unusual clemency of 
the Commander in Chief towards so insubordi- 
nate a soldier as I was mean ? Was it that by 
attacking my enemy wherever I could find him, 
and the attack being crowned with success should 
plead in bar of the disobedience of a positive 



ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 211 

order? Certainly not. Was it that Washington 
well knew that I loved, nay, adored him above all 
human beings ? That knowledge would not have 
weighed a feather in the scale of his military jus- 
tice. In short, the whole affair is explained in 
five words : it was my first offence^ 

Possibly, also, part of the explanation lay in the 
fact that Washington loved daring and successful 
fighters, like Morgan, Arnold, and Wayne, as he 
loved dashing and cultivated young men, like 
Hamilton, Laurens, and Lafayette. He was the 
same man who had once spoken enthusiastically 
of the bullets whistling about him. 



CHAPTER XII 

MONMOUTH AND AFTER 

" Where is virtue, where is patriotism, now ; when almost every 
man has turned his thoughts to gain and pleasures, practising every 
art of change-alley or Jonathans ; when men of abilities disgracefully 
neglect the important duties for which they were sent to Congress, 
tempted by the pitiful fees of practising attorneys ; when members 
of that body artfully start a punt, succeed, and then avail themselves 
of the secrets of the House, and commence monopolizing and accumu- 
late the public debt for their private emoluments?" — Henry 
Laurens, President of Congress. 

A BATTLE was cxpected almost immediately. 
The night before the fight a party of the general 
of^cers resolved upon a memorial to the chief, 
praying that he would not expose his person in 
the approaching conflict. This memorial was 
to be presented by Washington's old companion 
in arms, Dr. Craik, who assured the officers that it 
would do no good. He then related the old Ind- 
ian's prophecy, and confessed to his belief in its 
truth. On the following day, while the com- 
mander-in-chief, attended by his officers, was re- 
connoitring the enemy from an elevated part of 
the field, a shot from the British artillery struck 
a short distance from the horse's feet, throwing 
the earth over his person. Baron Steuben, 



212 



MONMOUTH AND AFTER 213 

shrugging his shoulders, exclaimed, " Dat wash 
very near," while Dr. Craik, pleased with this con- 
firmation of his faith in the Indian's prophecy, 
nodded to the officers who composed the party 
of the preceding evening, and then, pointing to 
Heaven, seemed to say, in the words of the sav- 
age prophet, " The Great Spirit protects him ; he 
cannot die in battle."^ 

At five o'clock on the morning of June 28th, 
Washington learned that the British had begun 
to march. He sent orders to Lee to begin the 
attack on them, unless there should be very power- 
ful reasons to the contrary, and promised to come 
up to his support. Lee moved nearer to the 
enemy, apparently with the intention of attacking. 
A party of British' troops came toward his right 
flank, and gave what looked to Lafayette like a 
fair opportunity of cutting it off. The Marquis 
rode up to Lee, and asked if an attack could not 
be made in that quarter. 

"Sir," replied Lee, "you do not know the Brit- 
ish soldiers ; we cannot stand against them ; we 
shall certainly be driven back at first, and we must 
be cautious." 

Lafayette replied that British soldiers had been 
beaten before, and he soon after sent word to 
Washington that his presence was extremely 
desirable. 

1 Custis, *' Recollections,"''' p. 222. 



214 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 

Before Washington received this message, he 
met American soldiers, who told him that they 
were retreating by order of Lee. Washington 
in surprise and anger rode forward until he found 
his second in command, when he expressed his 
astonishment at the unaccountable retreat, to 
which Lee replied " that the attack was contrary 
to his advice and opinion in council." ^ 

During the hotly spoken words, Hamilton, 
present as aide, leaped from his horse, and, drawing 
his sword, cried, " We are betrayed ; your excel- 
lency and the army are betrayed, and the moment 
has arrived when every true friend of America and 
her cause must be ready to die in her defence." 

Washington, excited as he was, had no taste for 
melodrama. 

" Col. Hamilton," he said, " you will take your 
horse." ^ 

The chief then ordered Lee to the rear. Send- 
ing certain officers to check the advance, he formed 
the second line himself. A white charger, which 
he was riding for the first time, wearied, sank 
under him, and died. Washington mounted a 
chestnut blood-mare, which his servant Billy was 
leading, and on this he rode along the line, urg- 
ing the men to receive the enemy, and promising 
them support from the southern troops. Of the 

^ Correspondence of John Laurens, p. 197. 
- Custis, '' Recollections," p. 413. 



MONMOUTH AND AFTER 21 5 

language which the heroic soldier used through- 
out this desperate day, an officer who was present, 
being asked if he had ever heard the commander 
swear, replied : " It was at Monmouth, and on a day 
that would have made any man swear. Yes, sir, 
he swore on that day, till the leaves shook on 
the trees, charming, delightful. Never have I 
enjoyed such swearing before, or since. Sir, on 
that ever-memorable day he swore like an angel 
from Heaven." This is the side of Washington's 
nature illustrated also by the anecdote, preserved 
by Chief Justice Marshall, who fought in the army, 
and suffered at Valley Forge, of the chief's throw- 
ing an inkstand at an officer guilty of cowardice. 
His love of courage was also shown after this battle 
of Monmouth. At one gun six men had fallen. As 
the last dropped, his wife, who was carrying water, 
seized the ramrod and carried on the work of an 
artilleryman. After the battle, Washington re- 
ceived her, gave her money, presented her with 
the commission of sergeant, which her husband 
had held, and recommended her for half pay for 
life. As Captain Molly she has become immortal. 
Of the result of Washington's efforts to save 
the day, he himself wrote : — 

" Before this will have reached you, the account of 
the battle of Monmouth will probably get to Virginia ; 
which, from an unfortunate and bad beginning, turned 
out a glorious and happy day." 



2l6 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

• 
** In the morning we expected to renew the action ; 
when, behold, the enemy had stole off as silent as the 
grave in the night, after having sent away their wounded. 
Getting a night's march of us, and having but ten miles 
to a strong post, it was judged inexpedient to follow 
them any further, but move towards the North River, lest 
they should have any design upon our posts there." 

Washington had spent the night, wrapped in 

his cloak, upon the field of battle. Lafayette said 

of him : — 

" General Washington was never greater in war than 
during this action. His presence stopped the retreat, 
his arrangements gave victory. His good appearance 
on horseback, his calm bravery, relieved by the anima- 
tion produced by the misfortune of the morning, gave 
him the look best suited to excite enthusiasm." 

The President of Congress wrote to him, 
" Love and respect for your Excellency is im- 
pressed on the heart of every grateful American." 

Congress : — 

" Resolved, unanimously, that the thanks of Congress 
be given to General Washington for the activity with 
which he marched from the camp at Valley Forge in 
pursuit of the enemy ; for his distinguished exertions in 
forming the line of battle ; and for his great good con- 
duct in leading on the attack and gaining the impor- 
tant victory of Monmouth over the British grand army, 
under the command of General Sir Henry Clinton, in 
their march from Philadelphia to New York." 

John Laurens wrote to his father : — 

''The merit of restoring the day is due to the 
General; and his conduct was such throughout, the 



MONMOUTH AND AFTER 



217 



affair as has greatly increased my love and esteem for 
him." 

Hamilton wrote : — 

" I never saw the General to so much advantage. 
He instantly took measures for checking the enemy's 
advance, and giving time to the army, which was very 
near, to form and make a proper disposition. He then 
rode back and had the troops formed on a very advan- 
tageous piece of ground. . . . America owes a great 
deal to General Washington for this day's work. A 
general rout, dismay and disgrace would have attended 
the whole army in any other hands but his. By his own 
good sense and fortitude, he turned the fate of the day. 
Other officers have great merit in performing their parts 
well ; but he directed the whole with the skill of a mas- 
ter workman. He did not hug himself at a distance, 
and leave an Arnold to win laurels for him ; but by his 
own presence he brought order out of confusion, ani- 
mated his troops, and led them to success." 

This battle had the good results for which it 
was fought. It was the last definite encounter in 
which Washington was engaged for some time. 
Clinton, who had replaced Howe, went to New 
York. Washington followed, and encamped near 
White Plains. Lee was tried for disobedience to 
orders, misbehavior before the enemy, and disre- 
spect to the commander-in-chief, and condemned. 
He left the army, and was naturally Washington's 
virulent enemy during the remaining four years of 
his life. Joseph Reed ^ wrote to General Greene 

1 See his "Life,'' Vol. 2, p. 38. 



2l8 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

during the autumn, that Lee talked to him 
about Monmouth. Reed, after giving his reply, 
added : — 

** I only added one piece of advice to him, to forbear 
any reflections on the Commander-in-chief, of whom, for 
the first time, I have heard slander on his private char- 
acter, viz : great cruelty to his slaves in Virginia, and 
immorality of life, though they acknowledge it is so very 
secret that it is difficult to detect it. To me, who have 
had so good opportunity to know the purity of the lat- 
ter, and equally believing the falsehood of the former, 
from the known excellence of his disposition, it appears 
so nearly bordering on a frenzy, that I can pity the 
wretches rather than despise them. However, they 
help to make up the party. New characters are emerg- 
ing from security, like insects after a storm." 

This reference to charges of sexual immorality 
is one of a few in print, but there are many made 
every year in conversation, founded on the flim- 
siest evidence, and almost assuredly false. 

One reason for the absence of action for a 
long time after Monmouth was reliance on 
French aid. A fleet, under the Count D'Estaing, 
arrived outside Sandy Hook in July, and on the 
8th the Count wrote to the American general, 
" The talents and great actions of General Wash- 
ington have insured him, in the eyes of all 
Europe, the title, truly sublime, of Deliverer of 
America." It turned out to be impossible, on 
account of the shallowness of the water, for the 



MONMOUTH AND AFTER 219 

French admiral to enter the harbor and engage 
the British fleet. He therefore made an expedi- 
tion against the enemy in Rhode Island, which 
was stopped by various causes, including a storm 
at sea. During this expedition disagreements 
began between the native and foreign officers, 
and Washington found Lafayette of assistance 
in removing discords. The young Frenchman 
was a diplomat, and did much good. Hamilton, 
proficient in French, adroit in personal relations, 
had w^on the confidence of the admiral, who 
wrote, on a certain matter, to Washington : " I 
entreat you not to confide the secret to any per- 
son, except Colonel Hamilton. His talents and 
his personal qualities have secured to him for- 
ever my esteem, my confidence, and my friend- 
ship." Washington's treatment of the French 
was courteous in the extreme. The French min- 
ister, M. Gerard, wrote to Vergennes : — 

" I have had many conversations with General Wash- 
ington, some of which have continued for three hours. 
It is impossible for me briefly to communicate the fund 
of intelHgence, which I have derived from him, but I 
shall do it in my letters as occasions shall present them- 
selves. I will now say only, that I have formed as 
high an opinion of the powers of his mind, his modera- 
tion, his patriotism, and his virtues, as I had before 
from common report conceived of his military talents 
and of the incalculable services he has rendered to his 
country." 



220 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

In taking leave of him, M. Gerard called him 
" the greatest man and best citizen of America." 
A letter to Washington says : — 

"All the French oflficers are extravagantly fond of 
your excellency ; but the Admiral more so than any of 
the rest. They all speak of you with the highest rever- 
ence and respect. General Hancock made the Admiral 
a present of your picture. He was going to receive it 
on board by the firing a royal Salute. But General 
Hancock thought it might furnish a handle for some 
of the speculative politicians to remark the danger 
of characters becoming too important. He therefore 
dissuaded the Admiral from carrying the matter into 
execution." 

Nevertheless, Washington did not put extrava- 
gant trust in French motives. About an expe- 
dition to Canada, contemplated by Congress, he 
expressed a fear that the introduction of a large 
body of French troops into a province, attached 
to them by all the ties of blood, habits, manners, 
and religion, would be " too great a temptation to 
be resisted by any power actuated by the com- 
mon maxims of national policy." He offered 
this characteristic bit of philosophy : — 

" Hatred to England may carry some into a excess of 
Confidence in France. ... It is a maxim, founded on 
the universal experience of mankind, that no nation is 
to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest; 
and no prudent statesman or politician will venture to 
depart from it." 



MONMOUTH AND AFTER 221 

Not even his love of Lafayette could throw 
him off his guard. " As the Marquis clothed his 
proposition, when he spoke it to me, it would 
seem to originate wholly with himself; but, it is 
far from impossible, that it had its birth in the 
Cabinet of France, and was put into this artful 
dress to give it the readier currency. I fancy that 
I read in the countenances of some people, on this 
occasion, more than the disinterested zeal of allies." 

In one respect Lafayette refused to be ruled 
by his guide, philosopher, and friend. The 
French officers thought that Lord Carlisle, Brit- 
ish commissioner to this country, under Lord 
North's bills, should be called to account for some 
terms uncomplimentary to France, and to Lafay- 
ette, highest among them in rank, fell the duty of 
challenging him. Estaing could not dissuade 
him, nor could Washington, although he showed 
insight into the British official's probable state of 
mind. 

** The generous spirit of Chivalry, exploded by the 
rest of the world, finds a refuge, my dear friend, in the 
sensibiUty of your nation only. But it is in vain to 
cherish it, unless you can find antagonists to support it ; 
and however well adapted it might have been to the 
times in which it existed, in our days it is to be feared, 
that your opponent, sheltering himself behind modern 
opinions, and under his present public character of 
Commissioner, would turn a virtue of such ancient date 
into ridicule." 



222 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Lord Carlisle did indeed quietly reply that for 
his public opinions, he was responsible only to 
his king and country. 

Lafayette sailed, after an illness, for France in 
January. Their correspondence continued, and 
the easier and gentler side of Washington comes 
out, in nothing we have of him, more pleasantly 
than in this correspondence with his young 
French adorer : — 

" Your forward zeal in the cause of liberty ; your sin- 
gular attachment to this infant world ; your ardent and 
persevering efforts, not only in America, but since your 
return to France, to serve the United States ; your polite 
attention to Americans, and your strict and uniform 
friendship for me, has ripened the first impressions of 
esteem and attachment, which I imbibed for you, into 
such perfect love and gratitude, that neither time nor 
absence can impair." 

Lafayette's desire to induce his hero to visit 
him abroad when the war should end brought out 
this reply : — 

" Let me entreat you to be persuaded, that to meet 
you anywhere, after the final accomplishment of so glo- 
rious an event, would contribute to my happiness ; and 
that to visit a country, to whose generous aid we stand 
so much indebted, would be an additional pleasure ; but 
remember, my good friend, that I am unacquainted with 
your language, that I am too far advanced in years to 
acquire a knowledge of it, and that, to converse through 
the medium of an interpreter upon common occasions, 
especially with the Ladies, must appear so extremely 



MONMOUTH AND AFTER 223 

awkward, insipid, and uncouth, that I can scarce bear it 
in idea." 

With this sensitiveness may be compared this 
jocose but none the less true expression of how 
Washington felt about his own charms, as the 
years advanced : — 

*'Tell her (if you have not made a mistake and 
offered your own love instead of hei's^ to me) that I 
have a heart susceptable of the tenderest passion, and 
that it is already so strongly impressed with the most 
favorable ideas of her, that she must be cautious of put- 
ting love's torch to it, as you must be in fanning the 
flame. — But here again methinks I hear you say, I am 
not apprehensive of danger — My wife is young — you 
are growing old and the Atlantic is between you — All 
this is true, but know my good friend that no distance 
can keep anxious lovers long asunder, and that the won- 
ders of the former ages may be revived in this — But 
alas ! will you not remark that amidst all the wonders 
recorded in holy writ no instance can be produced where 
a young Woman from real inclination has prefered an 
old man — This is so much against me that I shall not 
be able I fear to contest the prize with you — yet, under 
the encouragement you have given me I shall enter the 
list for so inestimable a Jewell." 

Lafayette, of course, did much for America 
during his stay abroad, combating scepticism and 
stirring up enthusiasm. 

Even more important than French help in 
paralyzing American effort during several years 
following 1777 was the poor supply of wisdom in 



224 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Congress, which, among its eri'ors, included the 
dangerous one of profuse paper currency, which 
had such results that "not worth a Continental " is 
vigorous slang to-day. " Their principal depend- 
ence," wrote John Adams in 1777, " is not upon 
their arms, I believe, so much as upon the failure 
of our revenue. . . . We, however, must disap- 
point them by renouncing all luxuries, and by a 
severe economy. General Washington sets a fine 
example. He has banished wine from his table, 
and entertains his friends with rum and water." 
During the following winter a Tory organ 
sneered : — 

" The account that we have had that the grand Amer- 
ican Congress could make no more dollars for want of 
rags, proves altogether a mistake, for independent of the 
large supply expected from Washington's army as soon 
as they can be spared, we have reason to believe the 
country in general never abounded more in that article." 

In October, 1778, Washington wrote to Gou- 
verneur Morris : — 

" Can we carry on the war much longer ? Certainly 
NO, less some measures can be devised & speedily exe- 
cuted to restore the credit of our currency, restrain 
extortion, & punish forestallers. Without these can be 
effected, what funds can stand the present expenses of 
the army ? And what officer can bear the weight of 
prices, that every necessary article is now got to ? A 
Rat in the shape of a horse is not to be bought at this 
time for less than ;^200 ; A Saddle under Thirty or 



monmout'h and after 225 

Forty ; — Boots twenty, — and shoes and other articles 
in the like proportion. — How is it possible, therefore, 
for officers to stand this without an increase of pay ? 
And how is it possible to advance their pay, when Flour 
is selling (at different places) from five to fifteen pounds 
pr cwt., — Hay from ten to thirty pounds pr Tunn, and 
Beef & other essentials in this proportion ? " 

This, of course, was in Continental currency, 
which at this time, in Massachusetts, was worth 
somewhat less than one-sixth as much as silver. 
To Benjamin Harrison, Washington wrote : — 

*' What may be the effect of such large and frequent 
emissions, of the dissensions, — parties, — extravagance, 
and a general lax of public virtue, Heaven alone can 
tell ! I am afraid even to think of It." 

And those who think our politics were superior 
then may ponder these further words of Washing- 
ton : — 

*' If I was to be called upon to draw a picture of the 
times and of Men from what I have seen, and heard, and 
in part know, I should in one word say that idleness, dis- 
sipation & extravagance seems to have laid fast hold of 
most of them. — That speculation — peculation — and 
an insatiable thirst for riches seems to have got the 
better of every other consideration and almost of every 
order of men. —=- That party disputes and personal 
quarrels are the great business of the day whilst the 
momentous concerns of an empire — a great and accumu- 
lated debt — ruined finances — depreciated money — 
and want of credit (which in their consequences is the 
want of everything) are but secondary considerations 
and postponed from day to day — from week to week 



226 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

as if our affairs wear the most promising aspect — after 
drawing this picture, which from my Soul I believe to 
be a true one, I need not repeat to you that I am 
alarmed and wish to see my Countrymen roused." 

Of those who speculated in flour and other 
necessities, and by monopoly raised the price, 
Washington said : " I would to God, that one of 
the most atrocious in each State was hung in 
gibbets upon a gallows five times as high as the 
one prepared by Haman." 

He accused them of wishing to continue the 
war for their own gain — a charge doubtless true, 
and how familiar to the America of to-day ! 
This is the way he laid down his opinion of 
Congress : — 

" It is a fact too notorious to be concealled that C 

is rent by Party — that much business of a trifling na- 
ture 8i personal concernment withdraw their attention 
from matters of great national moment. . . . When it 
is also known that idleness & dissipation take place of 
close attention and application, a man who wishes well 
to the liberties of his Country and desires to see its 
rights established cannot avoid crying out where are 
our men of abilities ? Why do they not come forth to 
save their Country ? let this voice my dear Sir call upon 
you — Jefferson & others — do not from a mistaken 
opinion that we are about to set down under our own 
fig tree, let our hitherto noble struggle end in ignom'y 
— believe me when I tell you there is danger of it." 

His low opinion of Congress was shared by 
many men of the first reputation. John Jay, 



MONMOUTH AND AFTER 227 

then President of Congress, wrote to Washing- 
ton April, 1779, that the marine committee was 
guided in its decisions by a commercial agent in 
Europe and his connections. " There is," he 
said, "as much intrigue in this State House as in 
the Vatican, but as little secrecy as in a boarding- 
school." General Greene wrote to the comman- 
der-in-chief, in April, 1779, "The politics of 
Congress are really alarming." And, about the 
same time, " It is said, days and weeks together 
are spent upon the most trifling disputes in the 
world ; and those generally of a personal nature." 
Edmund Randolph, soon to play a larger part, 
wrote to Washington : — 

" For, if report, and loud report too, is to be credited, 
that spirit of cabal and destructive ambition, which has 
elevated the faction-demagogue in every republic of 
antiquity, is making great head in the centre of these 
States ; and, if not soon extinguished, will do more 
essential injury to the cause of America than the swords 
of Sir Harry and his whole army." 

Much of the detail was too bad to be trusted 
to paper. " There has been," wrote Schuyler to 
Washington, "some wicked work regarding a 
certain appointment, which General Greene will 
advise you of verbally." Greene reported to the 
commander that all the public horses in Pennsyl- 
vania were starving, because the people refused 
to keep them. Thus the Congress and the peo- 



228 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

pie appeared to those who loom largest in the 
times to which we are often referred for proofs of 
our own degeneracy. 

So busy was Congress with its intrigues and 
private interests, that it did little to remedy the 
smallness and dissatisfaction of the army. " Mr. 
Washington's scaled miserables," as a Tory Jour- 
nal called them, still lacked food and raiment to 
such an extent that there was some point to this 
effusion : — 

''TO WASHINGTON 

" Great Washington ! thou mighty son of Mars, 
Thou thundering hero of the rebel wars, 
Accept our thanks for all thy favors past, 
Our special thanks await thee for the last. 
Thy proclamation, timely to command 
The cattle to be fattened round the land, 
Bespeaks thy generosity, and shows 
A charity that reaches to thy foes ! 
And was this order issued for our sakes. 
To treat us with roast beef and savory steaks? 
Or was it for thy rebel train intended, 
Give -'em the hides — and let their shoes be mended? 
Tho' shoes are what they seldom wear of late, 
'Twould load their nimble feet too much with weight ! 
And as for the beef — there needs no puff about it ; 
In short, they must content themselves without it. 
Not that we mean to have them starved — why, marry, 
The live stock in abundance, which they carry 
Upon their backs, prevents all fear of that ! " 

Another description comes from Jonathan 
Odell, the popular loyalist rhymer: — 



MONMOUTH AND AFTER 

" Strike up, hell's music ! roar, infernal drums ! 
Discharge the cannon ! Lo, the warrior comes ! 
He comes, not tame as on Ohio's banks, 
But rampant at the head of ragged ranks. 
Hunger and itch are with him — Gates and Wayne ! 
And all the lice of Egypt in his train. 
Sure these are Falstaff s soldiers, poor and bare, 
Or else the rotten reg'ments of Rag-Fair. . . . 

" Wilt thou, great chief of Freedom's lawless sons, 
Great captain of the western Goths and Huns, 
Wilt thou for once permit a private man 
To parley with thee, and thy conduct scan? 
At Reason's bar has Catiline been heard : 
At Reason's bar e'en Cromwell has appeared. . . . 

" Hear thy indictment, Washington, at large ; 
Attend and listen to the solemn charge : 
Thou hast supported an atrocious cause 
Against the king, thy country, and the laws; 
Committed perjury, encouraged Hes, 
Forced conscience, broken the most sacred ties ; 
Myriads of wives and fathers at thy hand 
Their slaughtered husbands, slaughtered sons, demand ; 
That pastures hear no more the lowing kine. 
That towns are desolate, all — all is thine ; 
The frequent sacrilege that pained my sight, 
The blasphemies my pen abhors to write. 
Innumerable crimes on thee must fall — 
For thou maintainest, thou defendest all. . . . 

"What could, when halfway up the hill to fame, 
Induce thee to go back, and link with shame? 
Was it ambition, vanity or spite 
That prompted thee with Congress to unite ; 
Or did all three within thy bosom roll, 
' Thou heart of hero with a traitor's soul ' ? " 



229 



230 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Thus the woes of the army and Washington's 
crimes were in the Tory mind all mixed together. 
Their rhymesters could hardly overstate the case. 
Among other troubles caused by the worthless- 
ness of the currency, desertions naturally were in- 
creased, and mutinies resulted. The first one of 
importance was in Pennsylvania, where a large 
part of the troops were foreigners, and several 
years later the most serious one of all was in the 
same state. Washington's opposite methods of 
handling two of these outbreaks, which happened 
near together, showed the nature of his mind, 
which sought always a practical object. In the 
first case he used tact, and endeavored to have 
certain abuses redressed and the mutineers paci- 
fied, advising General Wayne to take " such 
measures founded in Justice, and a proper degree 
of generosity, as will have a tendency to conciliate 
or divide the men." Clothing was furnished, dis- 
charges granted to some, certificates given for 
depreciation in their pay, and the mutiny ended. 
On the other hand, however, when the Jersey 
troops revolted, immediately after, Washington 
ordered prompt and severe action, and spoke of 
their unreasonableness " in revolting at a time 
when the State was exerting itself to redress all 
their real grievances." In reality, however, the 
difference in the two cases was less in the justice 
of the demands than in the ability to deal with 



MONMOUTH AND AFTER 23 1 

the culprits. "You will have heard," Washington 
wrote to Steuben, "of the defection of the Penn- 
sylvania line, and the disagreeable compromise 
made with them. . . . Fortunately a part of the 
Jersey line since followed their example, and gave 
us an opportunity, after compelling all the muti- 
neers to an unconditional surrender, to make 
examples of two of the most active leaders." 
That word " fortunately " is one of the most 
charming, in its context, ever used by Washington. 

In the first case magnanimity was forced upon 
him. The second, which found him in a position 
to cope with it, he looked upon as a godsend. 

On the general subject of punishment, Wash- 
ington, anticipating Mr. W. S. Gilbert, wrote to 
Congress in favor of "a due proportion between 
the crime and the penalty." He wished an ex- 
tension of corporal punishment, and added : " A 
variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a 
proportion." In recommending martial law to 
the governor of Pennsylvania he gave a compre- 
hensive bit of political philosophy, " In general I 
esteem it a good maxim, that the best way to pre- 
serve the confidence of the people durably is to 
promote their true interest. . . . 

" Extensive powers not exercised as far as was 
necessary have, I believe, scarcely ever failed to 
ruin the possessor." 

The officers, during this dragging latter part 



232 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

of the war, were as displeaged as the men. 
Washington urged Congress " to make the Offi- 
cers take pleasure in their situation : If they are 
only made to endure it, the Army will be an 
insipid, spiritless Mass, incapable of acting with 
Vigor and ready to tumble to pieces at every re- 
verse of Fortune." After a long struggle against 
democratic prejudices, Washington succeeded in 
securing half pay for life for those officers who 
should continue in the service to the end of the 
war. He always had considerable sympathy with 
the point of view of officers, although he some- 
times combated their ideas because he was alive 
to civil considerations. 

The long period of inactivity was not specially 
favorable, in a nature like Washington's, to 
increased serenity, and signs of irritability were 
frequent. He complained of the great lenity to 
prisoners, and the British lack of gratitude, in 
terms just as strong as those in which Lord 
George Germaine made the converse charges in 
writing, about the same time, to General Clinton. 
These things, however, although the habit of 
irascibility grew on him, were really superficial, 
and his feeling toward life was much more deeply 
expressed in these words to a member of Con- 
gress : — 

" My mind is fortified against, or rather prepared for, 
the most distressing accts. that can be given of them. 



MONMOUTH AND AFTER 233 

. . . But we must not despair ; the game is yet in our 
own hands ; to play it well is all we have to do, and I 
trust the experience of error will enable us to act better 
in future." 

In 1 780 Greene wrote to Reed, " The great 
man is confounded at his situation, but appears to 
be reserved and silent." Pickering stated a com- 
mon experience when he wrote that he had been 
with the army three months, and in that time had 
not found it possible to accost the general with 
ease, although he could converse without difficulty 
with any other general officer. He lived his 
troubles through alone. Every morning when he 
awoke, he ruminated, as he expressed it, on the 
business of the ensuing day. Masses of detail 
were on his shoulders, as well as the largest ques- 
tions, military and civil. Deafness, that most 
irritating of infirmities, was growing. There was 
nothing stimulating to do — only to wait, hope, 
encourage the soldiers, and reason with Congress. 
Is it wonderful that in little things, and for the 
moment, his nerves occasionally found expression ? 
In big things, and permanently, he was serene, 
standino^ like a beacon in the midst of sloth and 
corruption. He deserves the name he has, of the 
best among the great — but what of the nation ? 
Many noble deeds were done ; but since soldiers 
deserted, officers resigned, citizens hung back, and 
Congress erred and peculated, is it not time for 



234 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

American moralists to cease assuring us that we 
have degenerated ? In one way only does the 
American Revolution show a superiority to our 
own day. Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Jef- 
ferson, Jay, and Adams are not to be matched by 
any group of men who have acted together since. 
Those leaders were brought to the front by a 
struggle to the death for a great cause, — the 
sword drawn for constitutional rights. In such 
another crisis fortune might bring such a mass of 
talent to the front. Without the occasion it could 
never appear. On the whole, we may be sure that the 
general moral conditions which Washington faced, 
when his country was in its birth, were decidedly 
not superior to those in which we live to-day. 

The Commander was always conscientious in 
his relations to the inhabitants of the places where 
he quartered. When he made his headquarters, 
in the winter of 1 779-1 780, in the Ford house, 
near Morristown, he made an inventory of all 
articles appropriated to his use during the winter. 
When he withdrew in the spring he asked Mrs. 
Ford if everything had been returned. " All but 
one silver table-spoon," said she. He made a note 
of it, and soon after the lady received a spoon 
bearing the initials G. W.^ When alarms were 

^ Her son, Judge Ford, told these details to Lossing and Custis. 
"Field Book of the Revolution," Vol. i, p. 314 ; Custis, "Recollec- 
tions," p. 139. 



MONMOUTH AND AFTER 235 

given, he went to Mrs. Ford's room, drew the cur- 
tains, and comforted her with assurances of safety. 
Sometimes soldiers were needed at the windows, 
and then Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Washington w^ould 
have to He in bed with the winter air from 
the windows piercing their modestly drawn cur- 
tains. Mrs. Washington's trips to headquarters 
were paid for by the government, on Washing- 
ton's suggestion, for, as he was unable to go to 
her, he thought her visits a legitimate item of his 
expenses. Other generals had their wives also, 
and General Greene wrote in March, 1779, from 
Middlebrook : " His Excellency and Mrs. Greene 
danced upwards of three hours without once 
sitting down. Upon the whole, we had a pretty 
little frisk." Of one of the sights which the 
ladies witnessed, Mrs. Washington wrote to her 
daughter-in-law: ^ — 

" Yesterday I saw the funniest, and at the same time 
most ridiculous review of the troops I ever heard of. 
Nearly all the troops were drawn up in order, and Mrs. 
Knox, Mrs. Greene, and myself saw the whole perform- 
ance from a carriage. The General and Billy, followed 
by a lot of mounted savages, rode along the line. Some 
of the Indians were fairly fine-looking, but most of them 
appeared worse than Falstaff's gang. And such horses 
and trappings ! The General says it was done to keep 
the Indians friendly towards us." 

Thatcher left an account of the same review, 
May 14th, 1779: — 

1 "Mary and Martha Washington," 185. 



236 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

" His Excellency, with his usuaUdignity, followed by 
his mulatto servant Bill, riding a beautiful grey steed, 
passed in front of the line and received the salute. He 
was accompanied by a singular group of savages. . . . 
They exhibited a novel and truly disgusting spectacle. 
But his Excellency deems it good policy to pay some 
attention to this tribe of the wilderness, and to convince 
them of the strength and discipline of our army, that 
they may be encouraged if disposed to be friendly, or 
deterred from aggression, if they should become hostile 
to our country." 

To Lafayette Washington reported, with un- 
conscious humor, that the Indians "have been 
instigated to arms and acts of Barbarism by a 
nation, which is unable to protect them, and of 
consequence had left them to that correction, 
which is due to their villany." To Rochambeau 
he wrote, doubtless equally guiltless of comic 
intent : " The visit you have had from the Indians 
gives me great pleasure. I felicitate you on 
that, which you must have had in the company 
of such agreeable and respectable guests." An 
entertaining idea that came into his head was 
this : " How far, my good sir, would it be prac- 
ticable if the Indians should be disposed to more 
than a neutrality, either by themselves, or with 
the aid of a few men in disguise, to seize the 
Fortress of Niagara ? A proof like this, of re- 
turning friendship, would be interesting and 
masterly." 



MONMOUTH AxND AFTER 237 

Although Washington took part in no fight- 
ing for a long time after Monmouth, he, of course, 
as commander-in-chief, had much to do in the 
direction of other men. His was the plan to 
capture Stony Point and Paulus Hook, two for- 
tresses on the Hudson, occupied by the enemy. 
Tradition asserts that when Washington proposed 
to General Wayne the storming of Stony Point, 
" Mad Anthony " replied, " General, I'll storm hell, 
if you will only plan it." Washington suggested 
to Wayne, " The usual time for exploits of this 
kind is a little before day, for which reason a 
vigilant officer is then more on the watch. I 
therefore recommend a midnight hour." 

On the morning of July i6th, 1779, Washington 
received the following note: — 

" Stony Point, two o'clock a.m. 
"16 July, 1779. 

" Dear General : The fort and garrison, with Colonel 
Johnson, are ours. Our officers and men behaved like 
men who are determined to be free. 

" Yours, most sincerely, 

" Anthony Wayne." 

Congress, besides giving medals to Wayne and 
to tw^o other officers, passed a vote of thanks to 
Washington "for the vigilance, wisdom, and 
magnanimity with which he had conducted the 
military operations of the States," especially as 
manifested in the orders for the late attack. 



238 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

The attempt on Paulus Hook under Major 
Henry Lee, who originated it, began successfully, 
but ended in cowardice. Clinton reported of the 
Americans that " their retreat was as disgraceful 
as their attack had been spirited and well-con- 
ducted," and Lee, in a private letter, said : " In 
my report to General Washington, I passed the 
usual general compliments to the troops under 
my command. I did not tell the world that near 
one-half of my countrymen left me." 



CHAPTER XIII 

ARNOLD'S TREACHERY AND HAMILTON'S PIQUE 

"When in the autumn of 1780 the army was preparing to hut 
in the wood back of Newburgh, the General being a Uttle advanced 
of me (in going over the ground selected for the hutment), a coun- 
tryman fell along side, and looking forward to the General, said to 
me, 'Now, I suppose he is the greatest man in the world !'*' — 
Pickering. 

Washington was constantly in favor of vigor 
in war, whatever the chances of peace. " We may 
rely upon it that we shall never have Peace till 
the enemy are convinced that we are in a condi- 
tion to carry on the war. It is no new maxim in 
politics that for a nation to obtain Peace, or 
insure it, it must be prepared for war." Every- 
thing w^as bent, in his mind, toward increasing 
the efificiency of the army, and an illustration of 
this may be seen in his discrimination about 
exchanges. He favored exchange of officers, but 
not of privates, since the American privates were 
enlisted for a short time and he frankly put politi- 
cal above what he called " humane " motives. He 
recommended strong measures, military and civil, 
and he had little sympathy with the party which 

239 



240 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

distrusted "army principles" — 'a party which 
remained aHve, with Mifflin and Gates still 
active, but which was much weaker than it had 
been a few years earlier. One absurd report in 
a Tory newspaper was, that Congress had asked 
France to invite Washington to Versailles, as a 
polite mode of escaping his control. Legislative 
debates still included fears that too much power 
was in the hands of one man. How worthy 
those hands were to hold any amount of author- 
ity was about to be shown again, in a singularly 
conclusive way, by the manner in which he met 
two particularly distressing misfortunes. One of 
the men whom he most admired betrayed his 
country ; another peevishly quarrelled with its gen- 
eral. Nothing in Washington's history shows his 
moral greatness more vividly than the calm, right, 
decided and magnanimous acts with which he 
met these exhibitions of ingratitude. 

One of them is as dramatic an episode as our 
history contains. Throughout the war, influenced 
by the bravery and ability of General Arnold, 
Washington sided with him against the hostility 
of Congress, which refused him well-earned pro- 
motion, partly from factional motives, partly from 
a dislike of his cupidity. Adams had written to 
his wife in 1777: "I spent last evening in the 
war office with General Arnold. He has been 
basely slandered and libelled. The regulars say, 



ARNOLD'S TREACHERY 241 

*he fought like Julius Caesar.' I am wearied to 
death with the wrangles between military officers, 
high and low. They quarrel like cats and dogs. 
They worry one another like mastiffs, scrambling 
for rank and pay, like apes for nuts." When 
Congress voted that Arnold should be repri- 
manded for the use which he made of private 
property in Philadelphia, Washington worded 
the reprimand so that it sounded almost like a 
compliment. One of Arnold's letters to Wash- 
ington said : " As Congress have stamped in- 
gratitude as a current coin, I must take it, I 
wish your Excellency, for long and eminent ser- 
vices, may not be paid in the same coin." When 
Arnold sought the command of the powerful 
fortress at West Point, Washington, not for a 
moment suspecting improper motives, gave it to 
him. 

On the day on which Arnold was to scatter his 
garrison about the highlands so that troops could 
be carried up the river by British ships and take 
possession of the fort, he received a letter inform- 
insf him that the officer with whom he had 
arranged the surrender, Major Andre, had been 
captured and the plot revealed. He went to his 
wife's room and told her that some transactions 
had come to light which had forever banished 
him from his country. She fell in a swoon. Ar- 
nold left her so. After she recovered, she drew 



242 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

the servants by her cries. " She remained fran- 
tic all day," says Hamilton, "accusing every one 
who approached her with an intention to murder 
her child (an infant in her arms), and exhibiting 
every sign of the most genuine and agonizing 
distress. Exhausted by the fatigue and tumult 
of her spirits, the phrenzy subsided towards 
evening, and she sank into all the sadness of 
affliction." 

An hour later Washington, who was tempora- 
rily in the vicinity on business, reached the house, 
which was on the side of the river opposite to 
West Point. He was informed that Mrs. Arnold 
was ill, and that her husband had gone to West 
Point to prepare to receive him. He and his 
party, except Hamilton, started for the fort, leav- 
ing word that he would return for dinner. 

As they were crossing the Hudson, Washing- 
ton, looking about him, said, " Gentlemen, I am 
glad General Arnold has gone before us, for we 
shall now have a salute, and the roaring of the 
cannon will have a fine effect among these moun- 
tarns. • 

There was no salute, however. As their boat 
approached the western shore, an officer was 
seen coming down the rocky shore. He apolo- 
gized for not receiving the commander-in-chief 
with appropriate ceremony. 

1 Arnold's " Life of Arnold." 



ARNOLDS TREACHERY 243 

" Is not General Arnold here ? " inquired 
Washington. 

" No, sir ; he has not been here for two days, 
nor have I heard from him in that time." 

Washington remained during the morning and 
inspected the fortifications. On his way back he 
received the news, and took the blow in perfect 
quiet. He sent Hamilton off to make every en- 
deavor to capture Arnold, then called Lafayette 
and Knox, put the report into the Frenchman's 
hands, and said calmly : " Arnold is a traitor, and 
has fled to the British. Whom can we trust 
now.f* 

Hamilton's pursuit was futile. He returned 
with a most shameless letter to Washington, from 
Arnold, sent ashore under a flag from the British 
ship on which the traitor had taken refuge. 
The general took precaution against an attack 
of the enemy, but he showed no excitement and 
no anxiety. When dinner at the Robinson 
house was announced, he said, " Come, gentle- 
men, since Mrs. Arnold is ill, and the General 
is absent, let us sit down without ceremony." 

After dinner he went to Mrs. Arnold's room, 
delivered her letter, and said that he had, in 
accordance with his duty, done all in his power 
to have her husband arrested, but not having 
succeeded, it gave him pleasure to assure her of 
his safety. 



244 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

She upbraided him with being in a plot to 
murder her child. " One moment she raved," 
wrote Hamilton to his future wife, " another she 
melted into tears. Sometimes she pressed her 
infant to her bosom, and lamented its fate, occa- 
sioned by the imprudence of its father, in a 
manner that would have pierced insensibility 
itself." 

Washington wrote to Rochambeau, in com- 
mand of the French army in America: " Traitors 
are the growth of every country, and in a revolu- 
tion of the present nature, it is more to be won- 
dered at, that the catalogue is so small, than that 
there have been found a few." To his friend, 
John Laurens, he wrote: — 

'' In no instance since the commencement of the 
war has the interposition of Providence appeared more 
remarkably conspicuous than in the rescue of the post 
and garrison of West point from Arnold's villanous 
perfidy. How far he meant to involve me in the catas- 
trophe of this place, does not appear by any indubitable 
evidence ; and I am rather inclined to think he did not 
wish to hazard the more important object of his treach- 
ery, by attempting to combine two events, the lesser of 
which might have marr'd the greater. Andr6 has rnet 
his fate, and with that fortitude, which was to be ex- 
pected from an accomplished man and gallant officer ; 
but I am mistaken if, at t/n's time, ' Arnold is undergoing 
the torment of a mental hell.' He wants feehng. 
From some traits of his character which have lately 
come to my knowledge, he seems to have been so hack- 



ARNOLD'S TREACHERY 245 

neyed in villany, and so lost to all sense of honor and 
shame, that, while his faculties will enable him to con- 
tinue his sordid pursuits, there will be no time for 
remorse." 

Washington was extremely anxious to capture 
Arnold because he believed it would do the coun- 
try good to see him tried and executed. A plan 
was worked up between him and Major Lee, by 
which a sergeant was to seem to desert, join the 
British, and, with the help of American spies in 
their ranks, carry off Arnold alive. Washington 
wrote of this plan : — 

" No circumstance whatever shall obtain my consent 
to his being put to death. The idea which would accom- 
pany such an event would be that Ruffians had been 
hired to assassinate him. My aim is to make a pubHc 
example of him, — and this should be strongly impressed 
upon those who are employed to bring him off. The 
sergeant must be very circumspect — too much zeal 
may create suspicion — and too much precipitancy may 
defeat the project. The most inviolable secrecy must 
be observed on all hands. I send you five guineas ; but 
I am not satisfied of the sergeant's appearing with much 
specie — this circumstance may also lead to suspicion as 
it is but too well known to the enemy that we do not 
deal much in this article. The Interviews between the 
party in and out of the city should be managed with 
much caution and seeming indifference, or else the fre- 
quency of their meetings, &c., may betray the design 
and involve bad consequences." 

The plan was pursued with great daring by the 
sergeant, who was successful almost to the end. 



246 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

On the very day preceding the night when Arnold 
was to be seized, gagged, and carried off by him 
and his confederates, he was transferred, not on 
account of any suspicion, to a British ship, and 
the scheme collapsed. 

Washington has been a good deal blamed for 
his refusal to allow the captured Major Andre 
any mitigation of the fate of a spy, because he 
happened to be an attractive and well-born man. 
Hamilton, who had begun to cool toward Wash- 
ington, wrote to his future wife : — 

" I send you my account of Arnold's affair ; and to 
justify myself to your sentiments, I must inform you 
that I urged a compliance with Andre's request to 
be shot; and I do not think it would have had an 
ill-effect, but some people are only sensible to motives 
of poHcy, and sometimes, from a narrow disposition, 
mistake it. 

" When Andre's tale comes to be told, and present 
resentment is over, the refusing him the privilege of 
choosing the manner of his death will be branded with 
too much obstinacy." 

Anne Seward, the British poetess, had stood 
out against her friend Dr. Johnson in favor of 
the colonists, but this act of severity led her to 
exclaim : — 

" O Washington ! I thought thee great and good. 
Nor knew thy Nero taste for guiltless blood, 
Severe to use the power that fortune gave, 
Thou cool determined murderer of the brave." 



ARNOLD^S TREACHERY 247 

As far as the evidence was concerned, there 
was no reasonable doubt, in spite of all the talk 
about his visit within the American lines being 
at the invitation of Arnold, who was still in com- 
mand. As General Greene, who was in the court, 
put it, " We prefer to believe Andre himself." 
His own statements rendered him liable to hang- 
ing on established military principles. Greene 
logically insisted also, that if Andre's case could 
be discriminated from that of a spy, his punish- 
ment should be not lessened but entirely remitted. 
Charles Lamb, rather smiling at the sentiment 
which gave the unfortunate officer a place in 
Westminster Abbey, spoke of him as " the ami- 
able spy. Major Andre." Of course, it is easy 
to feel sympathy with him, but so it is with any 
honest spy, for " the authorized maxims and prac- 
tices of war are the satires of human nature." A 
sample of the way Andre was lugged into every 
question may be seen in this, from Rivington s 
Gazette, July nth, 1 781 : — 

" George ! George ! the paralytic state of your cause 
is too manifest to deceive a people who have bought 
wisdom at the expense of XS\€\x fortunes and blood. They 
remember the flagitious fib uttered in general orders to 
your whole army on the 20th of August, \'j'j6\ . . . 

'' Deny this letter if you dare, murderer of Andre ! 
murderer of those Americans who sought liberty, but 
have lost their lives in your baneful projects and ser- 
vices, by trusting to the never to be forgotten false and 
bloody orders of 1776." 



248 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Romilly, afterward the great English jurist, 
wrote : — 

" What do you think of Arnold's conduct ? You may 
well suppose he does not want advocates here. I can- 
not join with them. The arguments used by Clinton 
and Arnold, in their letters to Washington, to prove 
that Andre could not be considered a spy, are : First, 
that he had with him, when he was taken, a protection 
of Arnold's, who was at that time acting under a com- 
mission of Congress, and therefore competent to give 
protection. Certainly he was, to all strangers to his 
negotiations with Clinton, but not to Andre, who knew 
him to be at that time a traitor to the Congress ; nay 
more, whose protection was granted for no other pur- 
pose but to promote and give effect to his treachery. 
In the second place, they say that at the time he was 
taken he was upon neutral ground ; but then they do 
not deny that he had been within the American lines in 
disguise." 

Soon after this blow, Washington lost, for a 
time, the friendship of Hamilton. The young 
soldier was frankly ambitious and persistent, 
and Washington, although he felt his value, 
was compelled, in order to avoid favoritism, to 
refuse him some military favors which he sought. 
Some Tory references to Hamiliton contained 
amusing references to his place in the Washing- 
ton family. Smyth's Journal gave a report " that 
Mrs. Washington had a mottled-tom-cat (which 
she calls, in a complimentary way, Hamilton) 
with thirteen yellow rings around his tail, and 



HAMILTON'S PIQUE 249 

that his flaunting it suggested to the Congress 
the adoption of the same number of stripes for 
the rebel flag." 

The same Journal remarked : — 

" It is said little Hamilton, the poet and composer to 
the Lord Protector Mr. Washington, is engaged upon a 
literary work which is intended to give posterity a true 
estimate of the present rebellion and its supporters, in 
case Clinton's Hght bobs should extirpate the whole 
race of rebels this campaign. 

" As the facile penman has seen a great deal of life in a 
very few years, and is withal a ' taimation cute obsarver^ 
it is probable he will afford posterity great amusement 
as well as instruction. It is said that the best American 
artists are engaged to illustrate the work, which is to be 
much enhanced in value by the presence of a vignette, 
representing a combat between a Presbyterian deacon, 
and the flesh and the devil (in which the deacon gets 
whipped). 

" The great interest Mr. Washington has in the work 
will be imagined, when we consider that he wore out 
four pair of sherry vallies (leather breeches) a few 
weeks ago, sitting for his picture to a peddling limner 
in Philadelphia, especially to illuminate the writer's 
ideas." 

The quarrel, which for a time made a coolness 
betv^een the two, is sufificiently creditable to the 
greater and less brilliant man when told in Hamil- 
ton's own words, written to Schuyler, February 
i8th, 1781: — 

'' I am no longer a member of the General's family. 
This information will surprise you. Two days ago, the 



250 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

General and I passed each other on the stairs. He 
told me he wanted to speak to me. I answered that I 
would wait upon him immediately. I went below, and 
delivered Mr. Tilghman a letter to be sent to the Com- 
missary, containing an order of a pressing and interest- 
ing nature. 

" Returning to the General, I was stopped on the way 
by the Marquis de Lafayette, and we conversed together 
about a minute on a matter of business. He can tes- 
tify how impatient I was to get back, and that I left 
him in a manner which, but for our intimacy, would 
have been more than abrupt. Instead of finding the 
General, as is usual, in his room, I met him at the head 
of the stairs, where, accosting me in an angry tone, 

* Colonel Hamilton,' said he, 'you have kept me wait- 
ing at the head of the stairs these ten minutes. I must 
tell you, sir, you treat me with disrespect.' I replied, 
without petulency, but with decision, ' I am not con- 
scious of it. Sir ; but since you have thought it neces- 
sary to tell me so, we part.' 'Very well, sir,' said he, 

* if it be your choice,' or something to that effect, and 
we separated." 

Less than an hour later Tilghman came to Ham- 
ilton, in the general's name, assuring him of his 
chief's great confidence in Hamilton's abilities, 
integrity, and usefulness, and of his desire to 
have a candid conversation to heal a difference 
which could have happened only in a moment of 
passion. Hamilton replied that he preferred to 
decline the conversation, and to act as if nothing 
had happened, until his place could be supplied. 
Washington consented to omit the talk, and 



HAMILTON'S PIQUE 25 1 

thanked the restive young prodigy for his offer 
to remain. 

Hamilton recorded the fact that he always dis- 
liked the position of aide-de-camp. 

" Infected, however, with the enthusiasm of the times, 
an idea of the General's character, which experience 
taught me to be unfounded, overcame my scruples, and 
induced me to accept his invitation and enter into his 
family. It was not long before I discovered he was 
neither remarkable for delicacy nor good temper, 
which revived my former aversion to the station in 
which I was acting, and it has been increasing ever 
since." 

Of his attitude after the breach he said : — 

" I was convinced the cessions the General might 
make would be dictated by his interest, and that his 
self-love would never forgive me what it would regard 
as a humiliation. 

" I believe you know the place I hold in the General's 
confidence and counsels, which will make it the more 
extraordinary to you to learn that for three years past I 
have felt no friendship for him and have professed none. 
The truth is our dispositions are the opposites of each 
other, and the pride of my temper would not suffer me 
to profess what I did not feel. Indeed, when advances 
of this kind have been made to me on his part, they 
were received in a manner that showed at least that I 
had no desire to court them, and that I desired to stand 
rather upon a footing of military confidence than of 
private attachment. 

" You are too good a judge of human nature not to be 
sensible how this conduct in me must have operated 



252 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

on a man to whom all the world is offering incense. 
With this key you will easily unlock the present mys- 
tery." 

He wrote that it had often been difficult for 
him not to renounce his office of aide, and that 
he was always determined that, if ever there was 
a breach, he would not consent to an accommoda- 
tion. 

" The General is a very honest man. His competi- 
tors have slender abilities and less integrity. His popu- 
larity has often been essential to the safety of America, 
and is still of great importance to it. These considera- 
tions have influenced my past conduct respecting him, 
and will influence my future. I think it is necessary he 
should be supported." 

At the time when Hamilton was chafing in a 
position where respect and obedience were re- 
quired, Washington, w^hose opinion was asked 
about the young officer's suitability to an office 
in which he later so profoundly influenced the 
fortunes of his nation, replied: — 

" How far Colo. Hamilton, of whom you ask my 
opinion as a financier, has turned his thoughts to that 
particular study, I am unable to ansr., because I never 
entered upon a discussion of this point with him. But 
this I can venture to advance, from a thorough knowl- 
edge of him, that there are few men to be found, of 
his age, who have a more general knowledge than he pos- 
sesses ; and none whose soul is more firmly engaged in 
the cause, or who exceeds him in probity and sterHng 
virtue." 



HAMILTON'S PIQUE 253 

Writing to Lafayette, to whom Hamilton con- 
fided the quarrel, Washington said : — 

" The event, which you seem to speak of with regret, 
my friendship for you would most assuredly have in- 
duced me to impart to you in the moment it happened, 

had it not been for the request of H , who desired 

that no mention might be made of it. Why this injunc- 
tion on me, while he was communicating it himself, is 
a little extraordinary. But I complied, and religiously 
fulfilled it." 

Soon after leaving the military family of the 
commander-in-chief, Hamilton applied for em- 
ployment in a light corps, and Washington, 
refusing in order to avoid jealousy, added, 
" My principal concern arises from an appre- 
hension, that you will impute my refusal of 
your request to other motives, than those I 
have expressed." 

Nothing in Washington's character is finer than 
the inevitableness with which he subordinated his 
feelings. An oversensitive man, he acted as if 
public and private wrongs to him were alike 
indifferent. He never for a moment hesitated to 
use every trick to capture Arnold, and he calmly 
followed his convictions about Andre in a storm 
of abuse. He found insubordination and imperti- 
nence in a friend to whom he had shown every 
favor, and he rose above the smaller pride and 
made advances toward a reconciliation. He 



254 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

refused even then to be led into favoritism, but he 
lived to win Hamilton back and make him of 
unfathomable use to his country. 

Much more constant was the personal sympathy 
between Washington and Lafayette, who returned 
to America in the spring of 1780. He wrote to 
his wife in the autumn : — 

" Gen. Washington felt very much what I said to him 
for you. He charges me to give you his most tender 
sentiments. He has many of them for George. He 
was much touched by the name which we gave him. 
We talk often of you and of the little family." 

The Marquis was ahvays vigilant, and he 
appears well in the frank words which he wrote to 
his chief about the matters which led to the 
famous reprimand of Lund Washington. He 
WTOte on April 23d, 1781 : — 

** Great happiness is derived from friendship ; and I 
do particularly experience it in the attachment which 
unites me to you. But friendship has its duties, and the 
man that likes you the best will be the forwardest in let- 
ting you know everything where you can be concerned. 

" When the enemy came to your house, many negroes 
deserted to them. This piece of news did not affect me 
much, as I little value those concerns. But you cannot 
conceive how unhappy I have been, to hear that Mr. 
Lund Washington went on board the enemy's vessels, 
and consented to give them provisions. This being done 
by the gentleman who, in some measure, represents you 
at your house, will certainly have a bad effect, and con- 



HAMILTOxN'S PIQUE 255 

trasts with spirited answers from some neighbors, that 
had their houses burnt accordingly." 

Lund Washington had already reported, how- 
ever, and the general replied : — 

"Dear Lund: Your letter of the i8th. came to 
me by the last Post. I am very sorry to hear of your 
loss. I am a little sorry to hear of my own ; but that 
which gives me most concern is, that you should go 
on board the enemy's vessels, and furnish them with 
refreshments. It would have been a less painful cir- 
cumstance to me to have heard, that in consequence of 
your non-compliance with their request, they had burnt 
my House and laid the Plantation in ruins. You ought 
to have considered yourself as my representative, and 
should have reflected on the bad example of communi- 
cating with the enemy, and making a voluntary offer of 
refreshments to them with a view to prevent a con- 
flagration." 

In such incidents as this Washington excites 
an approval almost warming to love. He lacked 
charm, that vague and magic something which so 
often wins against merit ; but when the big shock 
came, or the final question, he rose above every 
mist, and we do homage to the grandeur of what 
is higher than all amenities, — the force of right- 
eousness and truth. Undoubtedly there was a 
certain dryness in his character, an absence of 
poetry, that leads many intelligent students to 
feel, even if they do not name, an approach to 
Philistinism, perhaps to smugness, in his nature. 



256 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Such qualities are more often felt in his written 
words than in his deeds or general thoughts, and 
nothing is more absurd than the praise which is 
sometimes given to his style. The style was 
never less adequately the man. Frequently the 
ready-made phrases in which good counsel is de- 
livered are so conventional that they sound like 
cant, even where the conviction behind them is 
undoubted and the understanding broad. Noth- 
ing that he ever said, in his own w^ords, gains 
through its form, and much noble perception is 
mangled in its expression, although no reported 
statement of his is as distressing as some of the 
most famous sayings of Admiral Nelson. In 
Franklin's phrases lurk always a raciness, a 
humor, and an instinct for language that make 
them literature ; Jefferson's fame is inseparable 
from his gifts for expression, and Hamilton's 
words, spoken and written, were the weapons 
of an intellectual warrior. Lowell, to be sure, 
has praised the stately full dress of Washington's 
writing, but we may assume that the distinguished 
critic was unconsciously paying a tribute to one 
of the chief's brilliant secretaries. Surely, nobody 
could travel through the long collections of Sparks 
or Ford with unmitigated joy. There are big 
things about, mountains of competence and ac- 
complishment, but not a green and fascinating 
surface. Intimacy, with what is left to us of 



HAMILTON'S PIQUE 257 

Washington gives us affection as well as ad- 
miration, but an affection austere, respectful, and 
remote, not warm and comfortable, — even such 
an affection as was felt by many of the friends 
w^ho saw him face to face and went with him 
through war and peace. 



CHAPTER XIV 

VICTORY 

"Which was the most splendid spectacle ever witnessed: the 
opening feast of Prince George in London, or the resignation of 
Washington ? Which is the noble character for after ages to admire : 
yon fribble dancing in lace and spangles, or yonder hero who 
sheathes his sword after a life of spotless honor, a purity unre- 
proached, a courage indomitable, and a consummate victory ? Which 
of those is the true gentleman? What is it to be a gentleman? Is 
it to have lofty aims, to lead a pure life, to keep your honor virgin ; 
to have the esteem of your fellow-citizens, and the love of your fire- 
side ; to bear good fortune meekly ; to suffer evil with constancy ; 
and through evil or good to maintain truth always?'' — Thackeray. 

A CHANGE was made in the military situation 
by Lafayette's arrival with news of further French 
reenforcements. They were under the command 
of the Count de Rochambeau, who has been 
praised by some writers, but generally accused of 
mediocrity. Mirabeau called him " altogether in- 
capable." Of Washington's plans, Rochambeau 
wrote in his Memoirs : — 

"I ought to say, nevertheless, in justification of La- 
fayette, that he expressed substantially the sentiments 
of General Washington. That commander feared, and 
not without foundation, considering the absolute dis- 
credit of the finances of Congress, that the struggles of 

258 



VICTORY 259 

this campaign would be the last efforts of expiring pa- 
triotism. He wished, at any hazard, to risk an attack 
upon the enemy in their strong-hold, while he had the 
French troops at his disposal. But he perceived the 
consequences, and adopted the principles of my letter; 
and, during a long correspondence between us, I could 
never too highly praise the solidity of his judgment and 
the amenity of his style." 

The British under Clinton captured Charleston 
early in May, 1780, by brilliant military action. 
Clinton, hearing of the French reenforcements, 
came back to New York, and left Cornwall is to 
take care of the South, which for a time he did 
rather successfully, beating General Gates at Cam- 
den in August, but losing support from the in- 
habitants through the severity of his own measures 
and the cruelty of his cavalry leader. Colonel 
Tarleton. Greene, who was sent south after 
Gates's defeat, spoke, the next spring, of the ma- 
jority of the people favoring the enemy; but Corn- 
wallis received little assistance from them. He 
reported, after he had beaten Greene at Guilford 
in March, that the inhabitants came in, shook 
hands, said they w^ere glad, and then rode away 
again. " We fight, get beat, and fight again," wrote 
Greene to Washington. Cornwallis turned his 
attention to Virginia, which Arnold had already 
overrun "with his fifteen hundred or two thou- 
sand plunderers," as they were called by R. H. 
Lee, who added, " The learned and the judicious 



26o GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Polybius was of opinion, that the principal induc- 
ing motive of Alexander the Great for invading 
Persia, was the little resistance that the ten thou- 
sand Grecians met with in passing through that 
great empire." Lafayette was sent to Virginia, 
Arnold was called back to the North, and Corn- 
wallis went after Lafayette, writing " the boy 
cannot escape me." Lafayette reported to Wash- 
ington that the militia feared the British cavalry 
as they would so many wild beasts, and spoke 
of himself as " not strong enough even to get 
beaten." His behavior in keeping his troops 
cheered and sharing their hardships is very highly 
praised in the Memoirs of " Light-Horse Harry " 
Lee who served under him. 

Meantime, while Washington, in the highlands 
of the Hudson, was watching Clinton, neither 
knew the intentions of the other. Washington 
was already thinking of starting south after Corn- 
wallis, but the British idea of his plans is shown 
in these stanzas written by Stansbury for a re- 
union dinner given in New York City in 1781 : — 

" Friends, push round the bottle, and let us be drinking, 
While Washington up in his mountains is slinking ; 
Good faith, if he's wise he'll not leave them behind him, 
For he knows he's safe nowheres where Britons can find him. 
When he and Fayette talk of taking this city, 
Their vaunting moves only our mirth and our pity. 

" But, though near our lines they're too cautious to tarry, 
What courage they shew when a hen-roost they harry ! 



VICTORY 261 

Who can wonder that poultry and oxen and swine 
Seek shelter in York from such valor divine, — 
While Washington's jaws and the Frenchman's are aching 
The spoil they have lost, to be boiling and baking." 

Nor did the Americans know the enemy's in- 
tentions in the South. " A correspondent of 
mine," wrote Lafayette to Washington, "a ser- 
vant to Lord Cornwallis, . . . says his master, 
Tarleton, and Simcoe are still in town, but expect 
to move. . . . His Lordship is so shy of his 
papers, that my honest friend says he cannot get 
at them." 

In August the French and American armies, 
taking measures to deceive the enemy by sug- 
gesting an attack on Staten Island, started for 
the South. His plans and fears at this time 
were later clearly stated by Washington himself: 

'' It never was in contemplation to attack New York, 
unless the garrison should first have been so far dis- 
garnished to carry on the southern operations, as to 
render our success in the siege of that place as in- 
fallible as any future military event can ever be made. 
For, I repeat it, and dwell upon it again and again, 
some splendid advantage (whether upon a larger or 
smaller scale was almost immaterial) was so essen- 
tially necessary to revive the expiring hopes and languid 
exertions of the country, at the crisis in question, that 
I never would have consented to embark in any enter- 
prise, wherein, from the most rational plan and accurate 
calculations, the favorable issue should not have ap- 
peared as clear to my view as a ray of light. The failure 



262 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

of an attempt against the posts of the enemy could in 
no other possible situation during the war have been 
so fatal to our cause. 

" That much trouble was taken and finesse used to 
misguide and bewilder Sir Henry CUnton in regard to 
the real object, by fictitious communications as well as 
by making a deceptive provision of ovens, forage, and 
boats in his neighborhood, is certain. Nor were less 
pains taken to deceive our own army ; for I had always 
conceived, when the imposition did not completely take 
place at home, it could never sufficiently succeed abroad." 

Gouverneur Morris, who was in Philadelphia 
when Washington passed through on his way to 
the South, has left a glimpse of the incidents of 
the day in his Diary for August 30th : — 

"Went out to meet his Excellency General Washing- 
ton, who arrived in this city about one o'clock, amidst 
the universal acclamations of the citizens, who displayed 
every mark of joy on 'the occasion. His Excellency 
alighted at the City Tavern, received the compliments 
of many gentlemen, who went out to escort him, and of 
others who came there to pay him their respects, and 
then adjourned to my house with his suit. Count de 
Rochambeau, the Chevalier Chastellux, General Knox, 
General Moultrie, and others, to dinner. The owners 
of several ships in the harbor ordered them out into the 
stream, and fired salutes, whilst we drank ; the United 
States, His Most Christian Majesty, His Catholic Maj- 
esty, the United Provinces, the Allied Armies, Count 
de Grasse's speedy arrival, &c., 8z:c." 

Thomas Jefferson, then governor of Virginia, 
had written in May, asking Washington to take 



VICTORY 263 

command in that state in person, adding that, if 
this was done, " the difficulty would be how to 
keep men out of the field," and that the general's 
presence would make the Virginians "equal to 
whatever is not impossible." Jefferson's grace- 
ful compliments were not, however, what drew 
the commander-in-chief to the South. Greene, 
who was behaving extremely well there, wrote to 
Washington, " the inhabitants are much divided 
in their political sentiments, and the Whigs and 
Tories pursue each other with little less than 
savage fury." Washington hesitated a long time, 
mainly because he could form no idea of the 
plans of the British government, and when he 
finally decided to go after Cornwallis he tactfully 
wrote to Greene that he should not take command 
in person were it not that he knew Greene would 
prefer to be superseded by him than by Rocham- 
beau, whose presence could not be avoided. 
Cornwallis, if he received no assistance, would 
be no match for the united armies, and as his 
superior failed to send him help, the allies, by the 
end of September, had the British besieged in 
Yorktown, where Cornwallis remained, in spite 
of the approaching danger, because he was every 
hour expecting the reenforcements promised by 
Clinton. 

During the siege, Washington, Lincoln, and 
Knox were together in an exposed situation, 



264 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

when one of the general's aides, according to 
Thatcher's Diary, remarked : — 

" Sir, you are too much exposed here, had you not 
better step back a httle?" 

"Colonel Cobb," replied Washington, ''if you are 
afraid, you have the liberty to step back." 

Another instance of the general's dislike for 
timidity is given by Thatcher : — 

''While the Reverend Mr. Evans, our chaplain, was 
standing near the Commander-in-Chief, a shot struck 
the ground so near as to cover his hat with sand ; very 
much agitated, he took off his hat and said, ' see here, 
General' ' Mr. Evans,' replied his Excellency, with his 
usual composure, ' you had better carry it home and 
show it to your wife and children.' " 

Cornwallis, shelled from two parallels, and 
never having expected to defend the town suc- 
cessfully with his present forces, was seeing his 
position rapidly rendered untenable, but the prog- 
ress of the allies was impeded by two redoubts 
constructed by the British to cover their left fiank. 
These Washington resolved to storm, and in order 
to encourage emulation, he had one taken by the 
French, the other by the Americans. The Ameri- 
can attack was conducted by Lafayette, the ad- 
vance party being led by Hamilton, whose desire 
for conspicuous service was thus fed by the com- 
mander who had always treated him with every 
generosity consistent with fairness to the army. 

When surrender was practically assured, W^ash- 



VICTORY 265 

ington said to Knox, " The work is done, and well 
done." When Lord Fairfax, ninety years old, and 
a firm loyalist, heard the news of the surrender 
of Cornwallis to his former protege, he said to a 
servant, " Come, Joe, put me to bed, for I'm sure 
it is high time for me to die." 

When the British marched out to surrender, 
Washington, wishing not to humiliate them, kept 
away mere spectators, and prevented any signs of 
exultation. Courtesies were exchanged between 
the British and the French, but between the 
Americans and the British there was only silence. 
Washington received the sword, mounted on 
Nelson, a chestnut, with white face and legs, who 
was, after this service, left in idleness at Mount 
Vernon, until he died of old age. " The treat- 
ment, in general," Cornwallis reported, " that we 
have received from the enemy since our surrender 
has been perfectly good and proper, but the kind- 
ness and attention that have been shown to us by 
the French officers in particular, their delicate 
sensibility of our situation, their generous and 
pressing offer of money, both public and private, 
to any amount, has really gone beyond what I can 
possibly describe." 

John Adams wrote to his wife, when he heard 
of the surrender : — 

" General Washington has struck the most sublime 
stroke of all in that article of the capitulation which res- 



266 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

cues the tories for trials by their peers. This has struck 
toryism dumb and dead. I expect that all the rancor of 
the refugees will now be poured upon Cornwallis for it." 

Cornwallis, however, had protected his Tory 
friends in a way that Adams knew nothing about, 
by obtaining a condition that he might send one 
vessel to New York. On that ship he transported 
all the loyalists. 

The British officers were all invited to head- 
quarters, except Colonel Tarleton. He applied 
to Lafayette, the universal mediator, to know if 
the omission was accidental. Lafayette referred 
him to Laurens, who replied, as reported by Custis, 
" No, Colonel Tarleton, no accident at all ; in- 
tentional, I can assure you, and meant as a re- 
proof for certain cruelties practised by the troops 
under your command in the campaigns of the 
Carolinas." 

Everybody knows the reported answer of Lord 
George Germaine, when asked by Wraxall how 
Lord North took the news : — 

" As he would have taken a cannon-ball in his 
breast," replied Lord George. " He opened his 
arms, exclaiming wildly, as he paced up and down 
the room for a few minutes, ' O God ! it is all 
over ! ' — words which he repeated many times 
under the deepest agitation and distress." 

Two days after the news reached England, the 
session of Parliament opened, and the people were 



VICTORY 267 

called upon, in the royal speech, for fresh exertions. 
Fox accused the ministry of "progressive mad- 
ness, impolicy, or treachery " ; the prime minister 
replied, urging further effort to obtain British 
rights, and Burke answered that the words of 
Lord North froze his blood and harrowed up his 
soul. 

*' Good God ! Mr. Speaker," he exclaimed, " are we yet 
to be told of the rights for which we went to war ? Oh, 
excellent rights ! oh, valuable rights ! Valuable you 
should be, for we have paid dear at parting with you. 
Oh valuable rights, that have cost England thirteen 
provinces, four islands, a hundred thousand men, and 
more than seventy millions of money ! Oh wonderful 
rights, that have lost to Great Britain her empire on the 
ocean — her boasted grand and substantial superiority, 
which made the world bend before her ! Oh inestimable 
rights, that have taken from us our rank among nations, 
our importance abroad, and our happiness at home ; that 
have taken from us our trade, our manufactures, and our 
commerce ; that have reduced us from the most flourish- 
ing empire in the world to be one of the most compact, 
unenviable powers on the face of the globe ! Oh won- 
derful rights, that are Hkely to take from us all that yet 
remains ! . . . Oh, miserable and infatuated men ! mis- 
erable and undone country ! not to know that right 
signified nothing without might ; that the right without 
the power of enforcing it was nugatory and idle in the 
copyhold of rival states or of immense bodies ! " 

Many an Englishman feels to-day almost as 
Burke felt then about the severance of the Empire, 
and Americans may well learn a lesson not only 



268 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

from the fairness, and even magnanimity, with 
which British historians treat our cause, but from 
the wise and patient constancy with which recent 
EngHsh statesmen have endured our insolence, 
aided us in European diplomacy, and steadfastly 
pursued the great object of increasing confidence 
between two nations, one in laws, language, and 
ideals. 

Franklin, hearing at Paris the news of the sur- 
render, wrote to John Adams, who was in Holland : 
" Most heartily do I congratulate you on the glori- 
ous news. The infant Hercules in his cradle has 
now strangled his second serpent." 

Washington, however, even at the height of 
success, never lacked hints of how the democratic 
spirit of the people regarded the future. For 
instance, Governor Trumbull, congratulating him 
on the surrender at Yorktown, spoke of it as " an 
event, which will hasten the wished-for happy 
period, when your Excellency may retire to and 
securely possess the sweets of domestic felicity 
and glorious rest from the toils of war, surrounded 
by the universal applauses of a free, grateful, and 
happy people." 

Leaving part of his troops, he started North on 
November 5th, stopping a few days on the way, to 
be present at the death of his wife's only son, who 
had sickened while on duty before Yorktown. 
The youth, after he was stricken with the camp 



VICTORY 269 

fever, had been assisted to see the surrender, and 
was then removed to Eltham, thirty miles away. 
When he died, Washington, embracing his wife, 
and much moved, said to those about him, " From 
this moment I adopt his two youngest children as 
my own. " ^ 

Although peace was now deemed assured, 
Washington believed that favorable terms would 
best be gained by military preparations, and it 
was in such circumstances that he stated fre- 
quently the view now so often misrepresented. 

" There is no measure so likely to produce a speedy 
termination of the War as vigorous preparations for 
meeting the enemy in full expectation of it, if they are 
only playing the insidious game. This will make them 
think of Peace in good earnest." 

" If we are wise let us prepare for the worst. There 
is nothing which will so soon produce a speedy and hon- 
orable peace as a state of preparation for war ; and we 
must either do this or lay our account for a patched up 
inglorious peace, after all the toil, blood, and treasure 
we have spent." 

That he believed in reckoning on war after 
peace was assured is wholly untrue. Washington 
was not an imaginative man, and the few figures 
of speech which he uses are repeated over and 
over again ; but his favorite vision pictured him- 
self peacefully "floating down the river of life," 
or quietly existing " under his own vine and fig- 

1 Custis, 254. 



27Q. GEORGE WASHINGTON 

tree," seeing his country happy in industry and 
the arts of peace. 

" I indulge," he wrote to Lafayette, " a fond, 
perhaps an enthusiastic idea, that, as the world is 
evidently much less barbarous than it has been, 
its melioration must still be progressive ; that na- 
tions are becoming more humanized in their pol- 
icy, that the subjects of ambition and causes for 
hostility are daily diminishing ; and, in fine, that 
the period is not very remote, when the benefits of 
a liberal and free commerce will pretty generally 
succeed to the devastations and horrors of war." 

The obstacle to ending the war was, in his 
mind, the lack of sincere wish by the British for 
peace on terms satisfactory to America, and he 
quoted with approval Franklin's statement, " They 
are unable to carry on the war, and too proud to 
make peace." King George was certainly deter- 
mined to hang on to the bitter end. " I certainly 
till drove to the wall will do what I can to save 
the Empire." John Adams's view of the situation 
was thus written into a journal on November 3d, 
1782: — 

"The present conduct of England and America re- 
sembles that of the eagle and cat. An eagle, scaling 
over a farmer's yard, espied a creature that he thought 
a hare. He pounced upon and took him up in the air, 
the cat seized him by the neck with her teeth, and round 
the body with her fore and hind claws. The eagle, find- 
ing himself scratched and pressed, bid the cat let go and 



VICTORY 271 

fall down. No, says the cat, I will not let go and fall, 
you shall stoop and let me down." 

In the same journal he wrote a few days 
later : — 

" The compliment of * Monsieur, vous etez le Wash- 
ington de la negotiation ' was repeated to me by more 
than one person. I answered, ' Monsieur, vous me 
faitez le plus grand honneur, et le compliment le plus 
subhme possible.' " 

The compliment, of course, was not wholly de- 
served. Franklin commented on Adams's behav- 
ior abroad with his usual lucid candor : " I am 
persuaded, however, that he means well for his 
country, is always an honest man, often a wise 
one, but sometimes, in some things, absolutely out 
of his senses." It is rather amusing to see the 
shrewd Vergennes, when he found France cheated 
in the peace negotiations by the Americans, treat- 
ing Franklin as led astray by his colleagues, and 
the brilliant French minister did not make his 
only penetrating prophecy when he commented 
on the readiness with which the Americans and 
the English in Paris got together, and added that 
France was likely to be poorly paid for securing 
to the United States a national existence. 

As the end of the war began to look near, a 
new danger arose from the murmurs of officers 
and soldiers who wished to collect their pay. 
Washington, sympathizing with them, yet had no 



2/2 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

intention of allowing them to enforce their rights 

improperly. 

** The patience — the fortitude — the long 8i great suf- 
fering of this army is unexampled in history ; but there 
is an end to all things & I fear we are very near one to 
this. Which more than probably will oblige me to stick 
very close to my flock this winter, & try Hke a careful 
physician, to prevent, if possible, the disorders getting to 
an incurable height." 

Hamilton, who entered Congress as a delegate 
from New York, after Yorktown, kept Washing- 
ton informed of the doings of that body, and 
promptly and ably took up his great part of prin- 
cipal adviser to the foremost citizen. On Febru- 
ary 7th, 1783, he warned him that there was a 
disposition not to pay the army, if their services 
should not be needed after June, but that, if the 
claims were pushed with moderation but with 
firmness, the weak-minded legislators might be 
influenced. He continued: — 

" The difficulty will be to keep a complaining and suf- 
fering army within the bounds of moderation. This 
your Excellency's influence must effect. In order to 
do it, it will be advisable not to discountenance their 
endeavors to procure redress, but rather, by intervention 
of confidential and prudent persons, to take tJie direction 
of them. This, however, must not appear. It is of 
moment to the public tranquillity that your Excellency 
should preserve the confidence of the army without los- 
ing that of the people. This will enable you, in case of 
extremity, to guide the current, and to bring order, per- 



VICTORY 273 

haps even good, out of confusion. 'Tis a part that 
requires address ; but 'tis one which your own situation, 
as well as the welfare of the community, points out." 

This is all very frank and downright, but 
Washington always took Hamilton's directness, 
not only with no offence, but with increasing 
gratitude. Harnilton added as a postscript: — 

*' General Knox has the confidence of the army, and is 
a man of sense. I think he may safely be made use of." 

Washington replied : — 

" I shall always think myself obliged by a free com- 
munication of Sentiments, and have often thought (but 
suppose I thought wrong, as it did not accord with the 
practice of Congress) that the public interest might be 
benefited if the Commander-in-Chief of the Army were 
let more into the political and pecuniary state of our 
affairs than he is." 

The accurate and judicious Madison has left 
us a valuable, authentic, and attractive account of 
the dashing young orator, soldier, statesman, and 
financier at this crisis, speaking In a private com- 
pany for the integrity and determination of his 
chief : — 

*' It was certain that the army had secretly deter- 
mined not to lay down their arms until due provision 
and a satisfactory prospect should be afforded on the 
subject of their pay ; that there was reason to expect 
that a public declaration to this effect would soon be 
made; that plans had been agitated, if not formed, 
for subsisting themselves after such declaration ; that, 
as a proof of their earnestness on this subject, the 



274 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

commander was already become e^^tremely unpopular, 
among almost all ranks, from his known dislike to every 
unlawful proceeding ; that this unpopularity was daily 
increasing and industriously promoted by many leading- 
characters ; that his choice of unfit and indiscreet per- 
sons into his family was the pretext, and with some the 
real motive ; but the substantial one, a desire to displace 
him from the respect and confidence of the army, in order 
to substitute General , as the conductor of 

their efforts to obtain justice. Mr. Hamilton said that 
he knew General Washington intimately and perfectly ; 
that his extreme reserve, mixed sometimes with a degree 
of asperity of temper, both of which were said to have 
increased of late, had contributed to the decline of his 
popularity ; but that his virtue, his patriotism and firm- 
ness, would, it might be depended upon, never yield to an)/- 
dishonorable or disloyal plans into which he might be 
called; . . . that he'(H.) knowing this to be his true 
character, wished him to be the conductor of the army 
in their plans for redress, in order that they might be 
moderated and directed to proper objects, and exclude 
some other leader who might foment and misguide their 
councils; that with this view he had taken the liberty to 
write to the general on this subject, and to recommend 
such a pohcy to him." 

The general left in blank was Gates. Wash- 
ington, as usual, acted with notable tact. Learn- 
ing that anonymous and inflammatory calls for 
meetings to procure redress had been issued, he 
called the officers together, and his friends in put- 
ting Gates in the chair, astutely kept him from 
taking active part. Washington condemned the 



VICTORY 



275 



irregular proceedings, eloquently stating the evils 
of a violent course, in an address which he read 
himself, after this introduction: "Gentlemen, you 
will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have 
not only grown gray, but almost blind, in the ser- 
vice of my country." 

" If my conduct heretofore," he said to the 
officers, " has not evinced to you that I have been 
a faithful friend to the army, my declaration of it 
at this time would be equally unavailing and im- 
proper. But, as I was among the first who em- 
barked in the cause of our common country; as 
I have never left your side one moment but when 
called from you on public duty; as I have been 
the constant companion and witness of your dis- 
tresses, and not among the last to feel and ac- 
knowledge your merits; as I have ever considered 
my own military reputation as inseparably con- 
nected with that of the army; as my heart has 
been expanded with joy when I have heard its 
praises, and my indignation has arisen when the 
mouth of detraction has been opened against it ; 
it can scarcely be supposed, at this late stage of 
the war, that I am indifferent to its interests." 

He is reported to have drawn tears from some 
of the officers, and the revolutionary plans were 
checked. Madison stated that " the steps taken 
by the general to avert the gathering storm, and 
his professions of inflexible adherence to his duty 



276 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

to Congress and to his country^ excited the most 
affectionate sentiments toward him." 

The general wrote to Lund Washington: "The 
good sense, the virtue, and patient forbearance of 
the army on this, as upon every other trying occa- 
sion which has happened to call them into action, 
has again triumphed ; and appeared with more 
lustre than ever. But if the States will not fur- 
nish the supplies required by Congress, thereby 
enabling the Superintendent of Finance to feed, 
clothe, and pay the army, if they suppose the war 
can be carried on without money, or that money 
can be borrowed without permanent funds to pay 
the interest of it; if they have no regard to justice 
because it is attended with expense," he could not 
answer for the consequences. General Greene 
wrote from Charleston, March i6th, 1783: — 

*' I wish to know the nature and extent of the discon- 
tent prevailing in the Northern troops. Matters are rep- 
resented here in dark colors. The report spreads among 
our troops, and threatens a convulsion." 

Hamilton, with his habitual prompt lucidity, 
wrote from Philadelphia the next day : — 

" It is much to be regretted, though not to be won- 
dered at, that steps of so inflammable a tendency have 
been taken in the army. Your Excellence, in my opin- 
ion, has acted wisely. The best way is ever, not to at- 
tempt to stem the torrent, but to direct it." 

" We have, I fear, men among us, and men in trust, 
who have a hankering after British connections. We 



VICTORY 277 

have others, whose confidence in France savors of 
credulity." 

" If no excesses take place, I shall not be sorry that 
ill humours have appeared. I shall not regret impor- 
tunity, if temperate, from the army." 

** As to any combination of force, it could only be 
productive of the horrors of a civil war, might end in the 
ruin of the country, and would certainly end in the ruin 
of the army." 

On the 25th of March the philosophic and 
somewhat autocratic adviser wrote : — 

" Republican jealousy has in it a principle of hostility 
to an army, whatever be their merits, whatever be their 
claims to the gratitude of the community. ... I often 
feel a mortification, which it would be impolite to ex- 
press, that sets my passions at variance with my rea- 
son. . . . 

" But, supposing the country ungrateful, what can the 
army do .'' It must submit to its hard fate . . . there 
would be no chance of success, without having recourse 
to means that would reverse our revolution. ... I have 
an indifferent opinion of the honesty of this country, and 
ill forebodings as to its future system. . . . God send 
us all more wisdom." 

Washington, less speculative, more patient, and 
more safe, replied : — 

" The idea of redress by force is too chimerical to 
have had a place in the imagination of any serious mind 
in this army ; but there is no telling what unhappy dis- 
turbances may result from distress, and distrust of jus- 
tice, and as far as the fears and jealousies of the army 
are alive, I hope no resolution will be come to for dis- 
banding or separating the lines till the accts. are 



278 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

liquidated. You may rely upon it, Sir, that unhappy 
consequences would follow the attempt." 

A few weeks later he described to Hamilton 
another illustration of his careful diplomacy: — 

" A petition is this moment handed to me from the 
non-comd. officers of the Connecticut line soliciting half 
pay. It is well drawn, I am told, but I did not read it. 
I sent it back without appearing to understand the con- 
tents, because it did not come through the channel of 
their officers." 

On July 1 2th Benjamin Harrison, one of the most 
intimate of Washington's friends, wrote from Vir- 
ginia to the delegates of that state in Congress : — 

" A report prevails here, said to come from Phila- 
delphia, that our worthy general has become so unpopu- 
lar in his army, that no officer will dine with him. The 
report is so improbable that I give no credit to it, yet I 
am anxious to hear from you on the subject, and also 
to know in what state the definitive treaty is and what 
now obstructs the signing of it." 

They replied : — 

" We do not know any color of reason for the report 
you mention relative to our Commander in Chief. On 
the contrary, we beheve that his popularity, like his 
merit, has not suffered the smallest diminution." 

It is only fair to Congress to realize that this 
very trouble was a partial justification of that dis- 
trust for a strong military organization which they 
had shown throughout the war. Happily, Wash- 
ington was the least autocratic of leaders. What 



VICTORY 279 

Hamilton might have done in his place is hinted 
in a letter of March 25th, to the general: "There 
are two classes of men, Sir, in Congress, of very 
different views; one attached to State, the other 
to Continental politics. The last have been stren- 
uous advocates of funding the public debt upon 
solid securities; the former have given every op- 
position in their power." He advocates blending 
the interests of the army with those of other cred- 
itors, as, in seeking means to restore the public 
credit, " the necessity and discontents of the army 
presented themselves as a powerful engine." He 
would certainly have gone a dangerous distance 
in using the army for civil purposes ; the new 
America under his guidance would have taken on 
a more military aspect ; and he could never have 
drawn from so jealous a civilian as John Adams 
so high a eulogy as this : — 

"The happy turn given to the discontents of the army, 
by the General, is consistent with his character, which, as 
you observe, is above all praise, as every character is 
whose rule and object are duty, not interest, nor glory, 
which I think has been strictly true with the General 
from the beginning, and I trust will continue to the end. 
May he long live, and enjoy his reflections, and the con- 
fidence and affections of a free, grateful, and virtuous 
people." 

The Count Dumas records this scene : — 

*' We were surrounded by a crowd of children carry- 
ing torches, reiterating the acclamations of the citizens ; 



28o GEORGE WASHINGTON 

all were eager to approach the person of him whom 
they called their father, and pressed so closely around 
us that they hindered us from proceeding. General 
Washington was much affected, stopped a few rnoments, 
and pressing my hand, said, ' We may be beaten by 
the EngHsh ; it is the chance of war ; but behold an 
army which they can never conquer.' " 

It was toward the end of 1783 that the army 
was disbanded. In his farewell orders the com- 
mander said : — 

*' It is earnestly recommended to all the troops, that, 
with strong attachments to the Union, they should carry 
with them into civil society the most concihating dispo- 
sitions, and that they should prove themselves not less 
virtuous and useful as citizens, than they have been per- 
severing and victorious as soldiers." 

He took leave of his ofificers in a tavern room, 
where, filling a glass, he said, " With a heart full 
of love and gratitude I take leave of you ; I most 
devoutly wish, that your latter days may be as 
prosperous and happy, as your former ones have 
been glorious and honorable." The officers, many 
of them conquered by emotion, shook his hand 
without speaking. He left the room, entered a 
barge, and waved his hat in silent farewell. 

Washington formally resigned his commission 
to Congress on December 23d at noon, in Annapo- 
lis, where Congress had been sitting since the 
departure from Philadelphia. There were present 
also the governor, council, and legislature of Mary- 



VICTORY 281 

land, and citizens of Annapolis, including a 
gallery of ladies. The members of Congress, 
representing the nation, remained seated, with 
their hats on, but the spectators stood uncovered. 
Washington was led to a chair by the secretary, 
who, " after a decent interval," ordered silence. 
Thomas Mifflin, President of Congress, then in- 
formed Washington that the United States, in 
Congress assembled^ were prepared to receive his 
communications. The General arose, and in a 
dignified manner made a brief address of con- 
gratulation and resignation, expressing obligation 
to the army and trust in Almighty God. Appar- 
ently much moved, he advanced to deliver to the 
President his commission and a copy of his ad- 
dress, then returned to his place, and, standing, 
received the answer of Congress. This ceremony, 
although a matter of course, has appealed to the 
imagination of the world. No act of Washing- 
ton's has been more highly celebrated. Brougham, 
to whom Washington was " the greatest man of 
our own or any age," spoke of him as " retiring 
with the veneration of all parties, of all nations, of 
all mankind, in order that the rights of men might 
be conserved, and that his example might never 
be appealed to by the vulgar." 

Sir James Mackintosh wrote in his diary : " A 
civil war is better than assassination and mas- 
sacre; it has a system of discipline, it has laws. 



282 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

duties, and virtues; but it must and in military des- 
potism. The example of Washington is solitary." 
The well-beloved and sympathetic pupil, La- 
fayette, wrote from France : — 

"Were you but such a man as Julius Caesar or the 
King of Prussia, I should almost be sorry for you at the 
end of the great tragedy where you are acting such a 
part. But, with my dear General, I rejoice at the bless- 
ings of a peace when our noble ends have been secured. 
Remember our Valley-Forge times ; and, from a recol- 
lection of past dangers and labors, we shall be still more 
pleased at our present comfortable situation. . . . 

" I cannot but envy the happiness of my grandchildren, 
when they will be about celebrating and worshipping 
your name. To have one of their ancestors among 
your soldiers, to know he had the good fortune to be 
the friend of your heart, will be the eternal honor in 
which they shall glory." 

The poet Shelley, aboard an American ship, 
drinking to the health of Washington and the 
prosperity of the American Commonwealth, re- 
marked, " As a warrior and statesman, he was 
righteous in all he did, unlike all who lived before 
or since ; he never used his power but for the 
benefit of his fellow-creatures." Shelley is hardly 
an authority, but there is something pleasing in 
the ardor with which poets have joined with 
statesmen in paying tributes to the leader, whose 
place is forever secure in the hearts of his coun- 
trymen. 



CHAPTER XV ■ ^:- 

CINCINNATUS OF THE WEST 

" Where may the wearied eye repose, 
When gazing on the Great ; 
Where neither guilty glory glows, 
Nor despicable state? 

"Yes — one — the first — the last — the best — 
The Cincinnatus of the West, 
Whom envy dared not hate 
Bequeath the name of Washington, 
To make man blush there was but one." — Byron. 

The sincerity of Washington's republicanism 
was again brought out, at the close of the war, by 
the action of some discontented officers, who, seek- 
ing to strengthen the government and secure to 
the army its rights, suggested that he be king. 
The general who had been fighting for freedom, 
and for whom royalty and tyranny had come almost 
to coincide in meaning, was bitterly grieved. He 
answered the officers, that no occurrence in the 
course of the war had given him more painful sen- 
sations. Such ideas, he said : " I must view 
with abhorrence and reprehend with severity. 
For the present the communicatn. of them will 
rest in my own bosom, unless some further agita- 

283 



284 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

tion of the matter shall make a disclosure neces- 
sary. 

" I am much at a loss to conceive what part of 
my conduct could have given encouragement to 
an address, which to me seems big with the great- 
est mischiefs, that can befall my Country. If I 
am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you 
could not have found a person to whom your 
schemes are more disagreeable. . . . Let me con- 
jure you, then, if you have any regard for yourself 
or posterity, or respect for me, to banish these 
thoughts from your mind, and never communi- 
cate, as from yourself or any one else, a sentiment 
of the like nature." 

Some words which Washington wrote to the 
historian, William Gordon, in 1 788, about this offer 
of a crown, certainly show with what amazing 
simplicity he took the occurrence : — 

" I had quite forgotten the private transaction to 
which you allude, nor could I recall it to mind without 
much difficulty. If I now recollect rightly, and I believe 
I do (though there were several applications made to me), 
I am conscious of only having done my duty. As no 
particular credit is due for that, and as no good but some 
harm might result from the publication, the letter, in my 
judgment, had better remain in concealment." ^ 

At the same period of his life he wrote about 
monarchy to his trusted correspondent, John 
Jay: — 



CINCINNATUS OF THE WEST 285 

" I am told that even respectable characters speak of 
a monarchical form of government without horror. From 
thinking proceeds speaking ; thence to acting is often but 
a single step. But how irrevocable and tremendous ! 
What a triumph for our enemies to verify their predic- 
tions! What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to 
find, that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and 
that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are 
merely ideal and fallacious ! Would to God, that wise 
measures may be taken in time to avert the conse- 
quences we have but too much reason to apprehend." 

To James Madison, who had not yet begun to 
drift away from Washington under the lead of 
Jefferson, the general wrote : — 

'* If the system proves inefficient, conviction, of the 
necessity of a change will be disseminated among all 
classes of the people. Then, and not till then, in my 
opinion, can it be attempted without involving all the 
evils of civil discord." 

Wholly as Washington deserved the glory he 
received for the integrity of his republicanism, it 
is fair to the nation to remember that probably 
there was never a possibility of his actually being 
king. As Adams proudly and vigorously said : — 
" Instead of adoring Washington, mankind should 
applaud the nation which educated him. ... I 
glory in the character of" a Washington, because 
I know him to be only an exemplification of the 
American character. I know that the general 
character of the nations of the United States is 



286 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

the same with his, and that the*prevalence of such 
sentiments and principles produced his character 
and preserved it, and I know there are thousands 
of others who have in them all the essential 
qualities, moral and intellectual, which compose 
it. . . ." Madison neatly summed it up thus : " I 
am not less sure that General Washington would 
have spurned a sceptre, if within his grasp, than 
I am that it was out of his reach if he had secretly, 
sighed for it." The subject may fitly close with 
Franklin's words, in a codicil to his will : " My 
fine crab-tree walking-stick, with a gold head 
curiously wrought in the form of the cap of lib- 
erty, I give to my friend and the friend of man- 
kind, General Washington. If it were a sceptre 
he has merited it, and would become it." 

It was with the most genuine relief that Wash- 
ington returned to the peace of Mount Vernon, 
for no passion was more constant in his active 
nature than the love of plantation life, and his 
taste for action was always partly counteracted by 
his dislike of friction, anxiety, and criticism. 

*' For henceforward my mind shall be unbent and I 
will endeavour to glide gently down the stream of life 
till I come to that abyss from whence no traveller is per- 
mitted to return." 

" A mind always upon the stretch, and tortured with 
a diversity of perplexing circumstances, needed a respite ; 
and I anticipate the pleasure of a little repose." 



CINCINNATUS OF THE WEST 287 

It was with real sweetness, too, and the gentle- 
ness of the sage, that, to his dearest friend and 
fellow-soldier, he wrote : — 

*' At length, my dear Marquis, I am become a private 
citizen on the banks of the Potomac ; and under the 
shadow of my own vine and my own fig-tree, free from 
the bustle of a camp, and the busy scenes of public life, 
I am solacing myself with those tranquil enjoyments, of 
which the soldier, who is ever in pursuit of fame, the 
statesman, whose watchful days and sleepless nights are 
spent in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his 
own, perhaps the ruin of other countries, as if this globe 
was insufficient for us all, and the courtier, who is al- 
ways watching the countenance of his prince, in hopes 
of catching a gracious smile, can have very little concep- 
tion. I have not only retired from all public employ- 
ments, but I am retiring within myself, and shall be able 
to view the solitary walk, and tread the paths of private 
life, with heartfelt satisfaction. Envious of none, I am 
determined to be pleased with all ; and this, my dear 
friend, being the order for my march, I will move gently 
down the stream of life, until I sleep with my fathers." 

Living quietly on his estate, he was more than 
busy. Besides the minute details of his affairs, 
there were many more visitors since the war, and 
numberless letters of all kinds to answer. Some 
idea of the social pressure on his time may be 
gained from an entry in his diary for June 30th, 

1785:— 

" Dined with only Mrs. Washington, which, I believe, 
is the first instance of it since my retirement from public 
life." 



288 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

His health was bad, a rheumatic complaint 
making it sometimes difficult for him to turn him- 
self in bed, and causing him to carry his arm -in 
a sling. Violent headaches and nausea afflicted 
him. Nevertheless, he was happy. " I think 
with you, that the life of a husbandman of all 
others is the most delectable. It is honorable, it 
is amusing, and, with judicious management, it is 
profitable. To see plants rise from the earth and 
flourish by the superior skill and bounty of the 
laborer fills a contemplative mind with ideas which 
are more easy to be conceived than expressed." 
How true this was of him, and how much must 
have passed through his mind and heart for which 
his powers of utterance were inadequate. Moved 
by the same love of rural effect, he wrote to the 
famous English wTiter on agriculture, Arthur 
Young : — 

*' The more I am acquainted with agricultural affairs, 
the better I am pleased with them ; insomuch that I can 
no where find so great satisfaction as in those innocent 
and useful pursuits. In indulging these feehngs, I am 
led to reflect how much more delightful to the unde- 
bauched mind, is the task of making improvements on 
the earth, than all the vain glory that can be acquired 
from ravaging it, by the most uninterrupted career of 
conquest." 

He saw a number of his old friends. The 
Fairfaxes he and Mrs. Washington invited to be 
"the intimate companions of our old age, as you 



CINCINNATUS OF THE WEST 289 

have been of our younger years." To Madison 
he wrote : " With some, to have differed in sen- 
timent is to have passed the Rubicon of their 
friendship, although you should go no further ; 
with others (for the honor of humanity), I hope 
there is more liberality." To Benjamin Harri- 
son : — 

" My friendship is not in the least lessened by the dif- 
ference, which has taken place in our political senti- 
ments, nor is my regard for you diminished by the part 
you have acted. Men's minds are as variant as their 
faces, and, where the motives to their actions are pure, 
the operation of the former is no more to be imputed to 
them as a crime, than the appearance of the latter ; for 
both, being the work of nature, are equally unavoidable. 
Liberality and charity, instead of clamor and misrepre- 
sentation (which latter only serve to foment the passions 
without enlightening the understanding), ought to gov- 
ern in all disputes about matters of importance." 

Some of his friends \vere dropping away. When 
the nearest among them, General Greene, went, 
W^ashington offered to pay for the education of 
his son. W' hen Colonel Tilghman died, Wash- 
ington told Jefferson that he " left as fair a repu- 
tation as ever belonged to a human character. 
Thus some of the pillars of the revolution fall. 
Others are mouldering by insensible degrees. 
May our country never want props to support the 
glorious fabric." When his brother, John Augus- 
tine, died, he wrote, " To attempt an expression of 



290 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

my sorrow on this occasion \vou!d be as feebly de- 
scribed, as it would be unavailing when related." 
To his friend Colonel Humphreys he wrote, " I 
condole with you on the loss of your Parents ; but 
as they lived to a good old age you could not be 
unprepared for the shock, tho' it is painful to bid 
an everlasting adieu to those we love, or revere, — 
Reason, Religion, and Philosophy may soften the 
anguish of it, but time alone can eradicate it." 

With thoughts of death so frequent, it is no 
wonder that his mind dwelt sometimes on what 
posterity might think of him. We shall never 
know why his letters to Mrs. Washington were 
destroyed by her, but we catch something of his 
feeling in such expressions as these : — 

" I will frankly declare to you, my dear Doctor, that 
any memoirs of my life, distinct and unconnected with 
the general history of the war, would rather hurt my 
feelings than tickle my pride whilst I lived. I had 
rather glide gently down the stream of life, leaving it to 
posterity to think and say what they please of me, than 
by any act of mine to have vanity or ostentation imputed 
to me. ... I do not think vanity is a trait of my char- 
acter." 

Again : — 

" In a former letter I informed you, my dear Hum- 
phreys, that if I had talents for it, I have not leisure to 
turn my thoughts to Commentaries. A consciousness 
of a defective education, and a certainty of the want of 
time, unfit me for such an undertaking." 



CINCINNATUS OF THE WEST 29 1 

To Weems, the most popular of all his biogra- 
phers, the collector or inventor of so many stories 
of the little hatchet type, he cannot, judging from 
that artist's production, have furnished much in- 
formation. In his diary for 1787 is this entry: 
" March 3. — The Rev. M. Weems and y^ Docf^ 
Craik who came here yesterday in the afternoon 
left this about Noon for Port Tob"." The world 
loves legends, and Weems supplied them in abun- 
dance. 

Painters and sculptors were also busy seeking 
his and their own immortality. 

" I am so hackneyed to the touches of the painter's 
pencil, that I am now altogether at their beck ; and 
sit, like Patience on a monument, whilst they are de- 
lineating the lines of my face. It is a proof, among 
many others, of what habit and custom can accomplish. 
At first I was as impatient at the request, and as restive 
under the operation, as a colt is of the saddle. The 
next time I submitted very reluctantly, but with less 
flouncing. Now, no dray-horse moves more readily to 
his thill than I to the painter's chair." 

Of his many visitors some have left records, 
slight in themselves, which nevertheless help us 
to see him as he lived. 

" The first evening," says one of them, " I spent 
under the wing of his hospitality, we sat a full 
hour at table by ourselves, without the least inter- 
ruption, after the family had retired. I was ex- 
tremely oppressed by a severe cold and excessive 



292 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

coughing, contracted by the exposure of a harsh 
winter journey. He pressed me to use some 
remedies, but I decHned doing so. As usual 
after retiring, my coughing increased. When 
some time had elapsed, the door of my room was 
gently opened, and on drawing my bed-curtains, 
to my utter astonishment, I beheld Washington 
himself, standing at my bedside, with a bowl of 
hot tea in his hand." 

Albert Gallatin, who thought that Washington 
was the most inaccessible man he ever saw in his 
life, tells of an experience he had, on an exploring 
tour, in 1 784, wiien, being near Washington, and 
hearing a mathematical problem stated by him, 
he volunteered the answer. Washington gave 
him such a look of severity as he had never had 
before or since, worked out his own conclusion, 
and then, wishing to do justice, said, " You are 
right, young man." 

All the personal impressions and anecdotes 
that exist of him confirm what could be guessed 
from his letters, — that his sense of humor was 
of the slightest. This might be surmised from a 
story which a son of Colonel Henry Lee wrote to 
Irving: Washington, at table at Mount Vernon, 
spoke of being in w^ant of carriage horses, and 
asked Lee if he knew where he could get a pair. 

" I have a fine pair, General," replied Lee, "but 
you cannot get them." 



CINCINNATUS OF THE WEST 293 

" Why not ? " 

" Because you will never pay more than half 
price for anything; and I must have full price for 
my horses." 

Mrs. Washington laughed, and her parrot 
joined in. 

" Ah, Lee," said Washington, " you are a funny 
fellow. See, that bird is laughing at you." 

David Howell of Rhode Island has preserved 
in a letter^ a characteristic scene: — 

" The President, with all the present members, chap- 
lains, and great officers of Congress, had the honor of 
dining at the General's table last Friday. The tables 
were spread under a marquise or tent taken from the 
British. The repast was elegant, but the General's 
company crowned the whole. As I had the good for- 
tune to be seated facing the General, I had the pleasure 
of hearing all his conversation. The President of Con- 
gress was seated on his right, and the Minister of France 
on his left. I observed with much pleasure that the 
General's front was uncommonly open and pleasant ; 
the contracted, pensive phiz betokening deep thought 
and much care, which I noticed at Prospect Hill in 
1775) is done away, and a pleasant smile and sparkling 
vivacity of wit and humor succeeds. On the President 
observing that in the present situation of our affairs, he 
believed that Mr. (Robert) Morris had his hands full, 
the General replied at the same instant, 'he wished he 
had his pockets full too.' On M. Peters observing that 
the man who made these cups (for we drank wine out 
of silver cups) was turned a Quaker preacher, the Gen- 

^ Quoted in Conways"' " Life of Paine/"' 



294 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

eral replied that 'he wished he had turned a Quaker 
preacher before he made the cups.' You must also hear 
the French Minister's remark on the General's humor — 
'You tink de penitence would have been good for de 
cups.'" 

The topic of marriage brought out this playful 
effort to Chastellux, author of one of the best- 
known books of travel in America at that 
period : — 

" I was, as you may well suppose, not less delighted 
than surprised, to meet the plain American words, * my 
wife.' A wife ! Well, my dear Marquis, I can hardly 
refrain from smiling to find you are caught at last. I 
saw, by the eulogium you often made on the happiness 
of domestic life in America, that you had swallowed the 
bait, and that you would as surely be taken, one day or 
another, as that you were a philosopher and a soldier. 
So your day has at length come. I am glad of it, with 
all my heart and soul. It is quite good enough for you. 
Now you are well served for coming to fight in favor of 
the American rebels, all the way across the Atlantic 
Ocean, by catching that terrible contagion — domestic 
fehcity — which time, hke the small pox or the plague, 
a man can have only once in his life : because it com- 
monly lasts him (at least with us in America — I don't 
know how you manage these matters in France) for his 
whole life time." 

His feeble sense of humor adds a touch of 
pathos to a picture which, for all its glory, is 
predominantly sad. In his early life the adven- 
tures give excitement and romance, but later we 



CINCINNATUS OF THE WEST 295 

often catch a tone of persistent and lofty gloom. 
He spoke of himself as "descending into the 
shades of darkness." Like an old man, he gave 
wise counsel to his young relatives. With most 
of his family he was on patriarchal and amicable 
terms. His mother worried him, and his view of 
her shows how easily fictions creep into history, 
where she stands as a figure wholly grand. No 
doubt she was a vigorous old woman, but she 
must have been in many ways a difficult relative 
to handle : — 

" While I am talking of my mother and her concerns, 
I am impelled to mention some things which have given, 
and still continue to give me pain. About two years 
ago, a gentleman of my acquaintance informed me, that 
it was in contemplation, to move for a pension for her 
in the Virginia Assembly ; that he did not suppose I 
knew of the measure proposed ; and that he did not 
believe it would be very agreeable to me to have it done ; 
but wished, however, to know my sentiments thereon. 
I instantly wrote him, that it was new and astonishing 
to me, and begged that he would prevent the motion if 
possible ; or oppose it, if made ; for I was sure she had 
not a child that would not be hurt at the idea of her 
becoming a pensioner — or in other words, receiving 
charity from the public. Since then I have heard 
nothing of that matter ; but learn from very good 
authority, that she is, upon all occasions and in all com- 
panies, complaining of the hardness of the times, of her 
wants and difficulties ; and if not in direct terms, at least 
by strong innuendoes, endeavours to excite a belief that 
times are much altered, &c., &c., which not only makes 



296 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

her appear in an unfavorable point of view, but those 
also who are connected with her. That she can have 
no real wants, that may not easily be supplied, I am 
sure of. Imaginary wants are indefinite ; and often- 
times insatiable ; because they sometimes are boundless, 
and always changing. The reason of my mentioning 
these matters, is that you may enquire into her real 
wants, and see what is necessary to make her comfort- 
able. If the rent is insufficient to do this, while I have 
anything, I will part with it to make her so ; and wish 
you to take measures in my behalf accordingly. At the 
same time, I wish you to represent to her in delicate 
terms, the impropriety of her complaints, and acceptance 
of favors, even where they are voluntarily offered, from 
any but relations. It will not do to touch upon this 
subject in a letter to her, and therefore I have avoided 
it." 

He decided, however, to mention the general 
subject to her, and as his letter is one of few which 
let us into the family circle, it is worth quoting 
extensively : — 

"Whilst I have a shilling left, you shall have part, 
if it is wanted, whatever my own distresses may be. 
What I shall then give, I shall have credit for; now I 
have not, for tho' I have received nothing from your 
Quarter, and am told that every farthing goes to you, 
and have moreover paid between 3 and 4 hundred 
pounds besides out of my own pocket ; I am viewed as 
a delinquent, and considered perhaps by the world as 
(an) unjust and undutiful son. . . . Further, my sin- 
cere and pressing advice to you is, to break up house- 
keeping, hire out all the rest of your servants except a 
man and a maid, and live with one of your children. 



CINCINNATUS OF THE WEST 297 

This would relieve you entirely from the cares of this 
world, and leave your mind at ease to reflect undis- 
turbedly on that which ought to come. On this subject 
I have been full with my Brother John, and it was de- 
termined he should endeavour to get you to live with 
him. He alas is no more, and three, only of us remain. 
My house is at your service, and (I) would press you 
most sincerely and most devoutly to accept it, but I am 
sure, and candor requires me to say, it will never answer 
your purposes in any shape whatsoever. For in truth 
it may be compared to a well resorted tavern, as scarcely 
any strangers who are going from north to south, or 
from south to north, do not spend a day or two at it. 
This would, were you to be an inhabitant of it, oblige 
you to do one of 3 things: ist. to be always dressing 
to appear in company ; 2d, to come into (the room) in 
a dishabille, or 3d, to be as it were a prisoner in your 
own chamber. The first you'll not like ; indeed, for a 
person at your time of life it would be too fatiguing. 
The 2d, I should not like, because those who resort here 
are, as I observed before, strangers and people of the 
first distinction. And the 3d, more than probably, would 
not be pleasing to either of us. Nor indeed could you 
be retired in any room in my house ; for what with the 
sitting up of company, the noise and bustle of servants, 
and many other things, you would not be able to enjoy 
that calmness and serenity of mind, which in my opinion 
you ought now to prefer to every other consideration 
in life. ... A man, a maid, the phaeton, and two 
horses, are all you would want. To lay in a sufficiency 
for the support of these would not require ^ of your 
income, the rest would purchase every necessary you 
could possibly want, and place it in your power to be 
serviceable to those with whom you may live, which no 
doubt would be agreeable to all parties." 



298 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

He sums up the situation* philosophically by 
saying that if she is so disposed, she may be per- 
fectly happy; "for happiness depends more upon 
the internal frame of a person's own mind, than 
on the externals in the world." 

Occupied in such ways with agricultural and 
domestic interests, longing for isolation and quiet, 
he nevertheless saw the political situation making 
his former rustic and beloved existence impossi- 
ble. It was inevitable, in such a crisis, that the 
leading personality in the new country should be 
appealed to on every public question. Moreover, 
there was some truth in what Madison said, " A 
mind like his, capable of great views, and which 
has long been occupied with them, cannot bear a 
vacancy." He desired to be left in peace, and at 
the same time he instinctively took hold of the 
leading questions. One of the first problems 
which presented diflBculty w^as made by the Vir- 
ginia legislature's offer to him of one hundred 
and fifty shares in the Potomac and James River 
Companies, as a testimonial to his interest in land 
improvements — a gift rather honorary than luc- 
rative, as Madison expressed it, but open to mis^ 
interpretation. How strongly Washington was 
interested in the encouragement of agriculture 
is shown in these words to Lafayette : — 

"I wish to see the sons and daughters of the world 
in Peace and busily employed in the more agreeable 



CINCINNATUS OF THE WEST 299 

amusement of fulfilling the first and great command- 
ment — Increase and Multiply : as an encouragement to 
which we have opened the fertile plains of the Ohio to 
the poor, the needy, and the oppressed of the Earth ; 
any one therefore who is heavy laden or who wants 
land to cultivate, may repair thither and abound, as in 
the Land of promise, with milk and honey ; — the ways 
are preparing, and the roads will be made easy, thro' 
the channels of Potomac & James river." 

The predicament in which he was put by the 
proposed public recompense for this interest was 
thus described by Madison to Jefferson, in about 
the same words used by Washington to Harrison : 
" The donation presented to General Washington 
embarrasses him much. On one side, he disliked 
the appearance of sHghting the bounty of his 
country, and of an ostentatious disinterestedness. 
On the other, an acceptance of reward in any 
shape was irreconcilable with the law he had 
imposed upon himself." 

Washington asked his friends for their opinions. 
Jefferson advised him to decline, if he could afford 
it, as acceptance would lower his reputation and 
refusal would heighten it. Harrison leaned against 
acceptance, on account of " the censoriousness of 
human nature." General Knox wrote, " My jeal- 
ousy for your fame is so high that I should prefer 
seeing you, Cincinnatus-like, following your plough, 
rather than accept the least pecuniary reward what- 
ever." He suggested that the proceeds of the fund 



300 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

might go to the widows and children of dead and 
wounded soldiers. Patrick Henry favored accept- 
ance, on account of the damper which would be 
put on the enterprise by his refusal of the shares, 
and suggested that if he deemed it inadmissible 
to hold them in the way in which the law gave 
them, he would be at liberty to suggest another 
disposition of the fund. Admiral Dewey, in a 
similar predicament after the Spanish War, made 
an error, and paid a heavy penalty for it. Wash- 
ington, whose sure-footed tact never erred, finally 
met his situation satisfactorily by giving his shares 
to educational institutions. 

In this period of half retirement his public 
outlook, pessimistic sometimes, was usually serene 
and hopeful. 

" Indeed, the rights of mankind, the privileges of the 
people, and the true principles of liberty, seem to have 
been more generally discussed and better understood 
throughout Europe since the American revolution, than 
they were at any former period." 

'* In whatever manner the nations of Europe shall 
endeavor to keep up their prowess in war, and their bal- 
ance of power in peace, it will be obviously our policy 
to cultivate tranquiUity at home and abroad ; and to ex- 
tend our agriculture and commerce as far as possible." 

** I have been writing to our friend General Knox this 
day to procure me homespun broadcloth of the Hart- 
ford fabric, to make a suit of clothes for myself. I hope 
it will not be a great while before it will be unfashion- 



CINCINNATUS OF THE WEST 301 

able for a gentleman to appear in any other dress. 
Indeed, we have already been too long subject to Brit- 
ish prejudices. I use no porter or cheese in my family 
but such as is made in America. Both those articles 
may now be purchased of an excellent quality." 

*' It is to be regretted, I confess, that Democratical 
States must always /d;-^/ before they can see : — it is this 
that makes their governments slow — but the people 
will be right at last." 

Among the domestic problems which fronted 
the retired leader few were more ominous than 
slavery. Several of his friends were ardent 
abolitionists, among them Lafayette, to whom 
Washington wrote : — 

" The scheme, my dear Marqs, which you propose as 
a precedent to encourage the emancipation of the black 
people of this Country from that state of Bondage in 
wch. they are held, is a striking evidence of the benevo- 
lence of your Heart. I shall be happy to join you in 
so laudable a work." 

** Your late purchase of an estate in the colony of 
Cayenne, with a view of emancipating the slaves on it, 
is a generous and noble proof of your humanity. 
Would to God a like spirit would diffuse itself generally 
into the minds of the people of this country. But I 
despair of seeing it. Some petitions were presented to 
the Assembly, at its last session, for the aboHtion of 
slavery, but they could scarcely obtain a reading. To 
set them afloat at once would, I really believe, be pro- 
ductive of much inconvenience and mischief ; but by 
degrees it certainly miight, and assuredly ought to be 
effected; and that too by legislative authority." 



302 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Madison wrote to Washingfon in 1785: — 

** The pulse of the house of delegates was felt on 
Thursday with regard to the general manumission, by a 
petition presented on that subject. It was refuted with- 
out dissent ; but not without an avowed patronage of 
its principles by sundry respectable members. A mo- 
tion was made to throw it under the table, which was 
treated with as much indignation, on one side, as the 
petition itself was on the other. There are several 
petitions before the House against any step towards 
freeing the slaves, and even praying for a repeal of the 
law which licenses particular manumissions." 

The Rev. Thomas Coke, in his Journal/ under 
date of May 26th, 1785, gives an account of a din- 
ner with Washington at his seat on the Potomac. 
Coke and the bishop who accompanied him asked 
their host to sign a petition for the emancipation 
of the negroes. " He informed us that he was 
of our sentiments, and had signified his thoughts 
on the subject to most of the great men of the 
state ; that he did not deem it proper to sign the 
petition, but if the Assembly took it into consid- 
eration, would signify his sentiments to the As- 
sembly by a letter." Naturally his legitimate 
mind favored only legal procedure. He believed 
that those " whose misfortune it is to have slaves 
as attendants " should not be tampered with by 
private societies. 

^ Published in Magazine of American History, 1880, p. 158. 



CINCINNATUS OF THE WEST 303 

" I hope it will not be conceived from these observa- 
tions, that it is my wish to hold the unhappy people, 
who are the subject of this letter, in slavery. I can 
only say, that there is not a man living, who wishes 
more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the 
abolition of it ; but there is only one proper and effec- 
tual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that 
is by legislative authority ; and this, as far as my suf- 
frage will go, shall never be wanting. But when slaves, 
who are happy and contented with their present mas- 
ters, are tampered with and seduced to leave them ; 
when a conduct of this sort begets discontent on one 
side and resentment on the other ; and when it happens 
to fall on a man, whose purse will not measure "with 
that of the society, and he loses his property for want 
of means to defend it ; it is oppression in such a case, 
and not humanity in any, because it introduces more 
evils than it can cure." 

One matter in which Washington became more 
involved than was comfortable taught him some- 
thing about the spirit of the nation, which was 
more democratic than he, as it was less demo- 
cratic than, for instance, Jefferson. Of a benevo- 
lent society, called the Cincinnati, composed of 
the officers of the late war, Washington was 
chosen president. There was much hostile criti- 
cism of the association, on the ground that it 
tended to establish class distinctions. In these 
days we merely smile at certain Daughters and 
Sons of various things, but then, with the nature 
of our society undetermined, there was genuine 



304 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

fear of aristocracy. Lafayette "wrote to Washing- 
ton from Paris : — 

" Most of the Americans here are virulent against an 
Association. Wadsworth must be excepted, and Dr. 
Frankhn said Httle ; but Jay, Adams, and all the others, 
warmly blame the army. You easily guess I am not 
remiss in opposing them. However, if it is found that 
the heredity endangers the true principles of democracy, 
I am as ready as any man to renounce it. You will be 
my compass, my dear General." 

Washington advised the total abolition of he- 
reditary membership and many objectionable sec- 
ondary features, and the clamor subsided. How 
he finally escaped altogether, with his usual 
adroitness, from an unpleasant position he thus 
related to Madison : — 

" On the one hand, I might be charged with derelic- 
tion of the officers, who had nobly supported me, and 
had even treated me with uncommon attention and 
attachment ; on the other, with supporting a measure 
incompatible with republican principles. I thought it 
best, therefore, without assigning this (the principal) 
reason, to decline the presidency and to excuse my at- 
tendance on the ground, which is firm and just, of ne- 
cessity of attending to my private concerns, and in 
conformity to my determination of spending the remain- 
der of my days in a state of retirement ; and to indis- 
position occasioned by rheumatic complaints with which 
at times I am a good deal afflicted." 

Thus Washington, living at Mount Vernon, 
the first citizen, divided his time between farming 



CINCINNATUS OF THE WEST 305 

and thinking. The time was approaching when 
the Rubicon must be crossed. A convention was 
about to be held, to draw up a constitution for the 
United States. Should it be left to other men, 
while he looked on from beneath his fig-tree ? 
His friends, like his own feelings, pulled him in 
opposite directions. General Knox, wishing him 
to stand for mankind and for no party, advised 
him to have nothing to do with any political oper- 
ations in which the opinions of men were divided. 
Citizens of a different stamp, like Jay, filled his 
mind with their convictions, whetting his appetite, 
and, more important than anybody else, Alexander 
Hamilton, in a masterly series of letters, eagerly 
kept Washington informed of all the political 
and financial principles that were being discussed. 
The fighting men won. Washington naturally, 
and through his own long and bitter experience, 
believed in a strong central government ; and his 
ablest acquaintances wTote stirringly to him about 
the dangers of weakness. In order, therefore, to 
throw his influence in the scale for union, well 
knowing the possibility that he might return no 
longer a free man, but again the servant of his 
country, — he decided to leave his home and to 
attend the Constitutional Convention. 



CHAPTER XVI 

FIRST IN PEACE 

" Since the thing is established, I would wish it not to be altered 
during the life of our great leader, whose executive talents are supe- 
rior to those, I believe, of any man in the world." — Jefferson. 

" A man was needed who possessed a commanding power over the 
popular passions, but over whom those passions had no power. That 
man was Washington.'" — Fisher Ames. 

There was but one man, besides Washington, 
whose rank as a citizen would permit for a mo- 
ment the consideration of him for the presidency 
of the Convention, and even that man s eminence 
hardly made the question doubtful. Inventor, 
diplomat, philosopher, patriarch that he was, de- 
voting the latest years of his long life to inesti- 
mable services to his country, Franklin was never- 
theless the second and not the first citizen of 
America. When, therefore, Franklin's ow^n state, 
Pennsylvania, nominated Washington, there could 
be no opposition, and the general presided over 
the deliberations which ended in the Constitu- 
tion, — a victory, on the wdiole, for the party 
which had most of his sympathies. He himself 
took small part always in public debates. One 

306 



FIRST IN PEACE 307 

of his reported observations, during this conven- 
tion, in answer to a member who proposed a clause 
limiting a standing army to five thousand, sounds 
too witty to be authentic. Washington replied 
that he should be satisfied with that, provided 
there were a provision that no enemy should 
presume to invade the United States with more 
than three thousand. Franklin also said little, 
and a witness of the proceedings remarked that 
although he was the greatest philosopher of the 
age he did not shine much in debate. Hamilton 
was present, already celebrated for scholarship and 
ability, and he came to the fray " with the search- 
ings of philosophy," "charged with interesting 
matter," now penetrating, now light, small, lean, 
stiff, vain, and profoundly interesting, the intel- 
lectual leader of the predominant party. The 
aofreeable and industrious Madison, fair minded 
and well informed, took a leading place in the 
debates, and has left to posterity the best account 
of them. In those debates is recorded the only 
instance in which Washington, as presiding ofHcer, 
ventured into argument. 

" When the President rose, for the purpose of putting 
the question (on representation), he said, that although 
his situation had hitherto restrained him from offering 
his sentiments on questions depending in the House, 
and, it might be thought, ought now to impose silence 
on him, yet he could not forbear expressing his wish 



308 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

that the change proposed might* take place. It was 
much to be desired that the objections to the plan rec- 
ommended might be made as few as possible. The 
smallness of the proportion of Representatives had 
been considered by many members of the Convention 
an insufficient security for the rights and interests of 
the people. He acknowledged that it had always ap- 
peared to himself among the exceptional parts of the 
plan ; and late as the present moment was for admitting 
admendments, he thought this of so much consequence, 
that it would give him much satisfaction to see it 
adopted." 

With Washington's practice in political gather- 
ings coincides an opinion contained in one of his 
letters : — 

" The only advice I will offer to you on the occasion 
(if you have a mind to command the attention of the 
House), is to speak seldom, but to important subjects, 
except such as particularly relate to your constituents ; 
and, in the former case, make yourself perfectly master 
of the subject. Never exceed a decent warmth, and 
submit your sentiments with diffidence. A dictatorial 
stile, though it may carry conviction, is always accom- 
panied with disgust." 

Both Gouverneur and Robert Morris were in 
the brilliant group which determined the form of 
government for our country, and possibly it is not 
beneath the dignity of biography to pause for a 
moment, amid these serious concerns, over an 
incident, recorded by Martin Van Buren, in which 
the two Morrises and Hamilton learned some- 



FIRST IN PEACE 309 

thing about Washington's demeanor. Hamilton, 
during the convention, remarked to the Morrises 
and others, that Washington was reserved and 
aristocratic even to his intimate friends, and 
allowed no one to be familiar. Gouverneur 
Morris, calling this idea a mere fancy, asserted 
that he could be as familiar with Washington 
as with any other friend. Hamilton offered 
Morris a wine supper for himself and a dozen 
friends if he would, at the next reception evening, 
gently slap Washington on the back, and say, 
" My dear General, how happy I am to see you 
look so well." 

Morris made the venture. Washington with- 
drew the hand which he had given, stepped sud- 
denly back, and fixed his eye on Morris with an 
angry glance, until the adventurous friend retreated 
and sought refuge in the crowd, which had looked 
on in silence. ^ 

There were many other famous men in this 
most notable assembly, with many shades of 
political principles, and it was a hard fight be- 
tween the friends and the opponents of a strong 
central government. " I almost despair," Wash- 
ington wrote to Hamilton during the struggle, 
" of seeing a favorable issue to the proceedings of 
our convention, and do therefore repent having 
had any agency in the business. 

" The men, who oppose a strong and energetic 



3IO GEORGE WASHINGTON 

government, are in my opini(5n narrow-minded 
politicians, or are under the influence of local 
views. The apprehension expressed by them, 
that the people will not accede to the form pro- 
posed, is the ostensible, not the real cause of 
opposition." 

Various amendments were made to the first draft, 
and of them Washington wrote to Jefferson : — 

" I can say there are scarcely any of the amendments, 
which have been suggested, to which I have much objec- 
tion, except that which goes to the prevention of direct 
taxation." 

Of the completed work Washington wrote to 
Lafayette : — 

" It is the result of four months' deliberation. It is 
now a child of fortune, to be fostered by some and buf- 
feted by others. What will be the general opinion, or 
the reception of it, is not for me to decide ; nor shall I 
say any thing for or against it. If it be good I suppose 
it will work its way ; if bad, it will recoil on the framers." 

The motion to sign the Constitution was drawn 
up by Gouverneur Morris, but, in order to give a 
better chance of success, was put into the hands 
of Dr. Franklin. The venerable genius of com- 
mon sense arose, with a written speech in his 
hand, but his words were read aloud by another. 
" I confess," Franklin tactfully began, " that there 
are several parts of this Constitution which I do 
not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall 



FIRST IN PEACE 31I 

never approve them. For, having lived long, I 
have experienced many instances of being obliged, 
by better information or fuller consideration, to 
change opinions, even on important subjects, 
which I once thought right, but found to be 
otherwise. It is therefore that, the older I grow, 
the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, 
and to pay more respect to the judgment of others." 

In spite of Franklin, supported in debate by 
Hamilton, Morris, and others, Randolph, Mason, 
and Gerry refused to sign. As the other members 
were signing, Franklin, looking toward the chair 
in which Washington sat, behind which was the 
picture of a rising sun, observed to some members 
near him that painters found it difficult to distin- 
guish in their art between a rising and a setting 
sun. " I have," he proceeded, " often and often, 
in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes 
of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at 
that behind the president, without being able to 
tell whether it was rising or setting ; but now, at 
length, I have the happiness to know that it is a 
rising, and not a setting sun." 

There is a tradition that when Washington was 
about to sign the Constitution, he rose from his 
seat, and, holding the pen in his hand, after a short 
pause, pronounced these words, " Should the 
States upset this excellent Constitution, the prob- 
ability is that an opportunity will never again offer 



312 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

to cancel another in peace, — ^the next will be 
drawn in blood." 

Madison later wrote to Edward Everett about 
this signature : — 

" I can testify, from my personal knowledge, that no 
member of the Convention appeared to sign the Instru- 
ment with more cordiality than he did, nor to be more 
anxious for its ratification, I have, indeed, the most 
thorough conviction, from the best evidence, that he 
never wavered in the part he took in giving it its sanc- 
tion and support." 

Of Hamilton's view Chief Justice Marshall 
says, " It was known that, in his judgment, the 
Constitution of the United States was rather 
chargeable with imbecility than censurable for 
its too great strength." Jay was not sure that 
the government rested on principles sufficiently 
stable. " Government without liberty," he added, 
" is a curse ; but, on the other hand, liberty without 
government is far from being a blessing." Patrick 
Henry, on the other hand, said the Constitution 
"squinted toward monarchy," and opposed Madi- 
son's election to the Senate because he had 
favored the form adopted. He also, according to 
Madison, declared his aversion to the Constitu- 
tion to be such that he could not take the oath, 
although he would remain in peaceable submis- 
sion. James Langdon wrote to Washington from 
Portsmouth that the agitation there against the 



FIRST IN PEACE 313 

principles adopted " frightened the people almost 
out of what little senses they had." Of these 
fears of too much power Washington said : — 

" No man is a warmer advocate for proper restraints 
and wholesome checks in every department of govern- 
ment than I am ; but I have never yet been able to dis- 
cover the propriety of placing it absolutely out of the 
power of men to render essential services, because a 
possibiHty remains of their doing ill." 

The states gradually fell into line. Of the 
last one Washington wrote : — 

" Suffice it to say, it is universally believed^ that the 
scales are ready to drop from the eyes, and the infatua- 
tion to be removed from the Jieart, of Rhode Island. May 
this be the case before that inconsiderable people shall 
have filled up the measure of iniquity before it shall be 
too late." 

" As the infamy of the conduct of Rhode Island out- 
goes all precedent, so the influence of her counsels can 
be of no prejudice. There is no other state or descrip- 
tion of Men but would blush to be involved in a con- 
nection with the paper money junto of that anarchy. 
God grant that the honest men may acquire an ascen- 
dency before irrevocable ruin shall confound the inno- 
cent with the guilty." 

Of the Virginia situation he wrote to Madison : 
" The accounts from Richmond are indeed, very 
unpropitious to federal measures. The whole 
proceedings of the Assembly, il is said, may be 
summed up in one word — to wit : that the edicts 
of Mr. H(enry) are enregistered with less opposi- 



314 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

tion by the members of that body, than those of 
the Grand Monarch are in the ParUament of 
France. He has only to say, let this be Law, and 
it is Law." Washington attended the Virginia 
convention, where Henry, Monroe, and Mason 
vainly opposed ratification. Monroe, seeing ahead 
what the country was likely to ask of Washington, 
wrote to Jefferson : — 

" To forsake the honorable retreat to which he had 
retired and risque the reputation he had so deservedly 
acquired, manifested a zeal for the publick interest, that 
could after so many and illustrious services, and at this 
stage of his life, scarcely have been expected from him. 
Having however commenc'd again on the publick thea- 
tre, the course which he takes becomes not only highly 
interesting to him but likewise so to us : the human 
character is not perfect ; if he partakes of those quali- 
ties which we have too much reason to believe are almost 
inseparable from the frail nature of our being, the people 
of America will perhaps be lost. Be assured his influ- 
ence carried this Government ; for my own part, I have 
a boundless confidence in him nor have I any reason to 
believe he will ever furnish occasion for withdrawing it. 
More is to be apprehended if he takes a part in the 
public counsels again, as he advances in age, from the 
designs of those around him than from any disposition 
of his own." 

Washington, even after the Constitution was 
adopted, feared radical amendments, and was 
much interested in all measures which might 
increase the public confidence in the federal sys- 



FIRST IN PEACE 315 

tern. " As a Constitutional door is opened for 
future amendments and alterations, I think it 
would be wise in the People to accept what is 
offered to them and I wish it may be by as great 
a majority of them as it was by that of the Con- 
vention ; but this is hardly to be expected because 
the importance and sinister views of too many 
characters, will be affected by the change. Much 
will depend however upon literary abilities, and 
the recommendation of it by good pens should be 
openly, I mean, publickly afforded in the Gazettes." 
Much the most important effort of literary ability 
to influence public opinion was put into the Fed- 
eralist, a series of papers on government written 
by Madison, Jay, and, above all, by Hamilton, who 
w^as " Publius." " Upon the whole," wrote Wash- 
ington, " I doubt whether the opposition to the 
constitution will not ultimately be productive of 
more orood than evil. It has called forth in its 

o 

defence abilities which would not perhaps have 
been otherwise expected that have thrown new 
light upon the science of government. It has 
ofiven the rio^hts of man a full and fair discussion, 
and explained them in so clear and forcible a 
manner, as cannot fail to make a lasting impres- 
sion upon those, w^ho read the best publications 
on the subject, and particularly the pieces under 
the signature of Publius." To Hamilton himself 
Washington wrote : — 



3l6 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

" Without an unmeaning complrment, I will say, that 
I have seen no other so well calculated, in my judg- 
ment, to produce conviction on an unbiassed mind as 
the production of your triumvirate . When the transient 
circumstances and fugitive performances, which attended 
this crisis shall have disappeared, that work will merit 
the notice of posterity, because in it are candidly and 
ably discussed the principles of freedom and the topics 
of government, which will be always interesting to man- 
kind, so long as they shall be connected in civil society." 

Thus far history has justified his prophecy. 

Lafayette regretted that the new Constitution 
contained no declaration of rights, and feared 
the power of the President. The latter objec- 
tion, however, might, he thought, be lessened, 
since Washington could not refuse to be the 
first President, and if he found the power too 
great, it could be diminished. " You only can 
settle that political machine ; and I foresee it 
will furnish an admirable chapter to your his- 
tory." On the danger of the President's power, 
Washington replied : — 

" Guarded so effectually as the proposed constitution 
is, in respect to the prevention of bribery and undue 
influence in the choice of president, / confess I differ 
widely myself from Mr. Jefferson and yon, as to the 
necessity or expediency of rotation iii that appoi?itment} 
. . . There cannot in my judgment be the least danger, 
that the president will by any practicable intrigue ever 
be able to continue himself one moment in office, much 

1 The italics are mine. 



FIRST IN PEACE 317 

less perpetuate himself in it, but in the last stage of cor- 
rupted morals and political depravity ; and even then, 
there is as much danger that any other species of 
domination would prevail. Though, when a people 
shall have become incapable of governing themselves, 
and fit for a master, it is of little consequence from 
what quarter he comes." 

Of his own position he said : — 

'* In answer to the observations you make on the 
probability of my election to the presidency, knowing 
me as you do, I need only say, that it has no enticing 
charms and no fascinating allurements for me. How- 
ever, it might not be decent for me to say I would refuse 
to accept, or even to speak much about an appointment, 
which may never take place ; for, in so doing, one might 
possibly incur the application of the moral resulting from 
that fable, in which the fox is represented as inveighing 
against the sourness of the grapes, because he could not 
reach them. All that it will be necessary to add, my 
dear Marquis, in order to show my decided predilec- 
tions is, that, (at my time of life and under my circum- 
stances,) the increasing infirmities of nature and the 
growing love of retirement do not permit me to enter- 
tain a wish beyond that of living and dying an honest 
man on my own farm." 

To Hamilton he wrote in almost the same 
words, and added : " While you and some others 
who are acquainted with my heart would acquit, 
the world and posterity might possibly accuse me 
(of) inconsistency and ambition. Still I hope I 
shall always possess firmness and virtue enough 
t maintain (what I consider the most enviable 



3l8 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

of all titles), the character of a7i honest man!^ 
To Henry Lee he wrote : — 

*' Should my unfeigned reluctance to accept the office 
be overcome by a deference for the reasons and opin- 
ions of my friends, might I not, after the declarations 
I have made (and heaven knows they were made in the 
sincerity of my heart), in the judgment of the impartial 
world and of posterity, be chargeable with levity and 
inconsistency, if not with rashness and ambition ? Nay 
farther, would there not even be some apparent founda- 
tion for the two former charges ? Now justice to myself 
and tranquillity of conscience require, that I should act 
a part, if not above imputation, at least capable of vin- 
dication. Nor will you conceive me to be too solicitous 
for reputation. Though I prize as I ought the good 
opinion of my fellow citizens, yet, if I know myself, I 
would not seek or retain popularity at the expense of 
one social duty or moral virtue. 

*' While doing what my conscience informed me was 
right, as it respected my God, my country, and myself, 
I could despise all the party clamor an-d unjust cen- 
sure, which must be expected from some, whose per- 
sonal enmity might be occasioned by their hostility to 
the government. I am conscious, that I fear alone to 
give any real occasion for obloquy, and that I do not 
dread to meet with unmerited reproach. And certain 
I am, whensoever I shall be convinced the good of my 
country requires my reputation to be put in risk, regard 
for my own fame will not come in competition with an 
object of so much magnitude." 

He added that if he declined the task, it would 
be because some other man could be found equally 
capable of executing it. To his friend Benjamin 



FIRST IN PEACE 319 

Harrison he wrote that, if he did take the office, 
" my errors shall be of the head, not of the heart." 
The desire to have him at the head of the gov- 
ernment was by no means unanimous. Some of 
the extreme Anti- Federalists asserted that he was 
more used to military command than to political 
philosophy, and a few ventured the opinion that 
he was a fool by nature and Franklin a fool from 
age. The Tory historian Jones wrote : " The 
friends of the rebel chief say he has virtues. I 
suppose he has : I say ' Curse on his virtues ! 
they've undone his country.' " Jefferson wrote to 
Edward Carrington : " Our jealousy is only put 
to sleep by the unlimited confidence we all repose 
in the person to whom we all look as our Presi- 
dent. After him inferior characters may perhaps 
succeed and awaken us to the danger which his 
merit has led us into." 

-The faith which Europe had in him was un- 
bounded. Paul Jones wrote : "Your name alone, 
Sir, has established in Europe a confidence, that 
has, for some time before, been entirely wanting 
in American concerns." Alfieri, in 1788, ad- 
dressed his tragedy, " The First Brutus," " to the 
most illustrious and free citizen. General Wash- 
inorton." Part of the dedication read : " The name 
of the deliverer of America alone can stand on 
the title-page of the tragedy of the deliverer of 
Rome. To you, excellent and most rare citizen, 



320 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

I therefore dedicate this, withorut hinting at even 
a fraction of the praises due to you, all of which I 
deem implied in the mere mention of your name. 
, . . Happy are you, who have been able to build 
your glory on the sublime and eternal base of love 
for your country, proved in deeds ! " 

When it was settled that Washington must 
accept the presidency, he wrote to Knox: — 

" In confidence I tell you, (with the world it would 
obtain little credit,) that my movements to the chair of 
government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike 
those of a culprit, who is going to the place of his execu- 
tion ; so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life nearly 
consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for 
an ocean of difficulties, without that competency of 
pohtical skill, abilities, and inclination, which are neces- 
sary to manage the helm." 

On April i6th, 1789, he wrote in his diary: — 

" About ten o'clock, I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, 
to private life, and to domestic felicity ; and, with a 
mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensa- 
tions than I have words to express, set out for New 
York in company with Mr. Thomson and Colonel Hum- 
phreys, with the best disposition to render service to my 
country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of 
answering its expectations." 

There were ovations along the route, and cere- 
monies after he reached New York. The oath 
was administered on April 30th, and an address de- 
livered to Congress. Washington was dressed in 



FIRST IN PEACE 321 

full military uniform, and carried a sheathed sword. 
Fisher Ames has left this picture of him : — 

'' I was present in the pew with the President, and 
must assure you that, after making all deductions for 
the delusion of one's fancy in regard to characters, I 
still think of him with more veneration than for any 
other person. Time has made havoc upon his face. 
That, and many other circumstances not to be reasoned 
about, conspire to keep up the awe which I brought 
with me. He addressed the two Houses in the Senate- 
chamber ; it was a very touching scene, and quite of a 
solemn kind. His aspect grave, almost to sadness; his 
modesty, actually shaking ; his voice deep, a little trem- 
ulous, and so low as to call for close attention ; added to 
the series of objects presented to the mind, and over- 
whelming it, produced emotions of the most affecting 
kind upon the members." 

It is little wonder that Washington entered 
upon his new task with genuine gloom. For 
many years cautious, his dislike of a new and 
dangerous position was increased by age ; of 
which, in this, his fifty-eighth year, many signs 
were manifest to him. He yielded only be- 
cause something had to be done, and he was 
obviously the man to do it. His love for his 
family and his farm had increased during the 
fatigues of the Revolution. " When I had 
judged, upon the best appreciation I was able 
to form of the circumstances which related to 
myself, that it was my duty to embark again on 
the tempestuous and uncertain ocean of public 



322 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

life, I gave up all expectations of private happi- 
ness in this world." He had a wish for happi- 
ness, — to end his life where alone his declining 
years found comfort, where, as he said, he had 
concentrated all his schemes, views, wishes, — 
" within the narrow circle of domestic enjoy- 
ment." He was depressed not only by the pros- 
pect of effort and worry over new problems, but 
by the fear that failure in his course might lead 
to censures as extravagant as the praises which 
he then enjoyed. " All see," he said, " and most 
admire, the glare which hovers round the exter- 
nal happiness of elevated office. To me there 
is nothing in it beyond the lustre, which may be 
reflected from its connexion with a power of 
promoting human felicity." Of course he valued 
the credit of success in this vast new field, but, as 
Webster said, his love of glory spurned every- 
thing short of general approbation ; and to secure 
that, or retain it, was almost beyond the bounds 
of possibility. He saw, that in such a situation, 
every act would be subject to a double interpreta- 
tion, while every step might in the future be used 
as a precedent. The ground was untrodden and 
dangerous. He entered upon it with apprehen- 
sion and with prudent humility, but also with his 
native firmness and domination. He would seek 
the help and the views of all men, but in the end 
his would be the responsibility and his the mastery. 



CHAPTER XVII 

LAUNCHING THE NATION 

" It was the extraordinary fortune of Washington, that, having 
been intrusted, in revolutionary times, with the supreme military 
command, and having fulfilled that trust with equal renown for wis- 
dom and for valor, he should be placed at the head of the first gov- 
ernment in which an attempt was to be made on a large scale to rear 
the fabric of social order on the basis of a written constitution and 
of a pure representative principle. A government was to be estab- 
lished, without a throne, without an aristocracy, without castes, 
orders or privileges ; and this government, instead of being a democ 
racy, existing and acting within the walls of a single cit\-, was to be 
extended over a vast country, of different climates, interests, and 
habits, and of various communions of our common Christian faith." 

— Daniel Webster. 

It was characteristic of Washington that one of 
the first matters to which he gave laborious atten- 
tion was a question of form. B. Stoddert, a Secre- 
tary of the Navy, beheved that " General Washing- 
ton, one of the most attentive men in the world to 
the manner of doing things, owed a great pro- 
portion of his celebrity to this circumstance." In 
those first days of the republic, with jealousy of 
authority on the one hand, and fear of anarchy 
on the other, the slightest differences of demeanor 
took on the deepest significance. Washington's 

323 



324 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

friend, David Stuart, wrote to fiim, " I believe the 
great herd of mankind form their judgment of 
character more from such sHght occurrences, than 
those of greater magnitude ; and perhaps they are 
right, as the heart is more immediately consulted 
with respect to the former, than the latter, and an 
error of judgment is mo^re easily pardoned than 
one of the heart." At any rate, Washington saw 
that manners excited fully as much passion as leg- 
islation, and they were therefore equally studied 
by him. He immediately consulted Madison and 
Jay upon the proper course to follow in making 
and receiving visits, with a regard partly to his 
time, but mainly to the effect on the public. The 
taste of that composite animal then tended much 
more toward ceremony than it does now. On a 
tour which Washington made in 1787, various 
towns received him not only with songs, praise, 
and bands, but even such phrases as " God bless 
your reign." Mr. Northley, however, a Quaker 
selectman, said, " Friend Washington, we are 
glad to see thee, and in behalf of the inhabitants 
bid thee a hearty welcome to Salem." There was 
a caricature called " The Gentry," which repre- 
sented the President mounted on an ass, while his 
friend, the poet Humphreys, leading the Jack, 
chanted hosannas and birthday odes. In seeking 
to observe "a just medium between too much state 
and too great familiarity," he frequently displeased 




George Washington 

From a photogravure of the Stuart Portrait finished at Philadelphia, in the spring of 1796. 
Copyrighted 1893 by A. W. Elson Co., Boston. 



LAUNCHING THE NATION 325 

the more democratic party. Patrick Henry, asked 
if he would accept a senatorship, said he was too 
old to fall into those awkward imitations which 
had become fashionable. He was charged with 
treating the legislature in an arbitrary, fretful, 
and sullen manner. The opposition view is 
well shown in the notes of the Anti- Federalist 
Senator Maclay : — 

" I entertain no doubt but that many people are aim- 
ing with all their force to establish a splendid Court with 
all the pomp of majesty. Alas ! poor Washington, if 
you are taken in this snare ! How will the gold become 
dim ! " 

*' Republicans are borne down by fashion and a fear 
of being charged with a want of respect to General 
Washington. If there is treason in the wish I retract 
it, but would to God this same General Washington 
were in heaven ! We would not then have him brought 
forward as the constant cover to every unconstitutional 
and irrepublicati act." 

Far more unpopular were the views and man- 
ners of the Vice-President. Maclay speaks of 
" Bonny Johnny Adams, ever and anon mantling 
his visage with the most unmeaning simper that 
ever dimpled the face of folly." Later, there was 
a rumor that whereas Washington was occasion- 
ally seen on foot, Adams, during his presidency, 
was never visible except with a coach and six. 
On the suggestion that titles be given to the 
officers of the government, the following passage 



326 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

from a letter of the time shows the extreme 
statements made by the enemies of the Vice- 
President : " The President is supposed to have 
written to Mr. Adams while titles were in de- 
bate, that if any were given, he should resign. 
Whether it be true or not, it is a popular 
report." These two stories were disposed of by 
Washington himself: — 

" One of the gentlemen, whose name is mentioned in 
your letter, though high-toned, has never, I believe, 
appeared with more than two horses in his carriage ; 
but it is to be lamented that lie and some otJiers have 
stirred a question, which has given rise to so much 
animadversion, and which I confess has given me much 
uneasiness, lest it should be supposed by some, (un- 
acquainted with facts,) that the object they had in view 
was not displeasing to me. The truth is, the question 
was moved before I arrived, without any privity or 
knowledge of it on my part, and urged, after I was 
apprized of it, contrary to my opinion ; for I foresaw 
and predicted the reception it has met with, and the use 
that would be made of it by the adversaries of the gov- 
ernment." 

On this subject Madison wrote to Jefferson : — 

'' This, I hope, will shew to the friends of Republi- 
canism that our new Government was not meant to sub- 
stitute either monarchy or aristocracy, and that the 
genius of the people is as yet averse to both." 

The only title that found acceptance was 
" Lady Washington." 

The President smarted with the attacks which 



LAUNCHING THE NATION 327 

were made upon his manners and his days of 
ceremony : — 

" That I have not been able to make bows to the 
taste of poor Colonel Bland (who, by the by, I believe 
never saw one of them), is to be regretted, especially 
too, as (upon those occasions), they were indiscrimi- 
nately bestowed, and the best I was master of, would it 
not have been better to throw the veil of charity over 
them, ascribing their stiffness to the effects of age, or 
to the unskillfulness of my teacher, than to pride and 
dignity of office, which God knows has no charms for 
me ? For I can truly say, I had rather be at Mount 
Vernon with a friend or two about me, than to be 
attended at the seat of government by the officers of 
state and the representatives of ev^ery power in Europe. 
... If it is supposed that ostentation, or the fashions 
of courts (which, by the by, I believe originate oftener 
in convenience, not to say necessity, than is generally 
imagined), gave rise to this custom, I will boldly affirm, 
that no supposition was ever more erroneous ; for, if I 
was to give indulgence to my inclinations, every mo- 
ment that I could withdraw from the fatigue of my 
station should be spent in retirement." 

That his social demeanor made strikingly con- 
tradictory impressions on various observers was 
due to the fact that some saw him in his habitual 
gravity, others in the intervals when his spirit 
lightened ; ^ome when he happened to hear, some 
when his growing deafness oppressed and embar- 
rassed him. At times the presence of women 
would relax him, and again the young girls who 



328 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

throneed around him would find that his counte- 
nance never softened. Often, at table, he would 
play with his fork, striking it about from pure 
nervousness. He would frequently eat nuts for a 
long time in silence; again, dinner would bring 
out his most cheerful mood. When he was not 
gay, the cast of his face deepened the impression 
of seriousness, — the indented brow, the bluish 
eyes rather dull, when they were not lightened into 
occasional animation, the large sockets, the broad 
upper nose under them, — these seemed signs 
of a dark and smouldering temper. His friends 
knew what strong passions lay chained under his 
will, hidden by his monotonous voice, and they 
knew that, however silent, he was never phleg- 
matic. Illness, confinement, and age were begin- 
ning to tell on his appearance. With his trials 
and his experience of success his speech did not 
become more fluent. It is the outside Washing- 
ton that has sunk most deeply into the heart of 
the average American, — the tranquil sage, rather 
than the passionate and fearless hero, victor over 
himself. The artist John Trumbull tells us that 
he once painted him, as he recollected the dan- 
gers of Princeton and looked the scene again, all 
lofty animation and high resolve. The represen- 
tative from South Carolina, who had ordered the 
painting on behalf of Charleston, was sure that 
his constituents would prefer a likeness of the 



LAUNCHING THE NATION 329 

man whose exterior they knew, — cahn and peace- 
ful, ahiiost lethargic, the Washington of the popu- 
lar mind. 

Illness emphasized the solemnity of his manner. 
To his physician on one occasion he said : " Do 
not flatter me with vain hopes ; I am not afraid 
to die, and therefore can hear the worst. Whether 
to-night, or tvventy years hence, makes no differ- 
ence. I know I am in the hands of a good Provi- 
dence." In a letter to an old friend he wrote : 
" The want of regular exercise, with the cares of 
office, will, I have no doubt, hasten my departure 
for that country from whence no traveller returns; 
but a faithful discharge of whatsoever trust I 
accept, as it ever has, so it always will be, the 
primary consideration in every transaction of my 
life, be the consequences what they may." To 
another: " I have already had within less than a 
year, two severe attacks, the last worse than the 
first. A third more than probably will put me 
to sleep with my fathers. At what distance this 
may be I know not. Within the last twelve 
months I have undergone more and severer sick- 
ness than thirty preceding years afflicted me 
with. Put it altogether I have abundant reason, 
however, to be thankful that I am so well recov- 
ered." Franklin wrote to Washington to con- 
gratulate him on a recovery, and the President 
replied : — 



330 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

" If to be venerated for benev(5lence, if to be admired 
for talents, if to be esteemed for patriotism, if to be 
beloved for philanthropy, can gratify the human mind, 
you must have the pleasing consolation to know, that 
you have not lived in vain. And I flatter myself that 
it will not be ranked among the least grateful occur- 
rences of your life to be assured, that, so long as I re- 
tain my memory, you will be thought on with respect, 
veneration, and affection by your sincere friend." 

When Franklin died the king and Convention 
of France went into mourning for the diplomat 
who had so fascinated them and whose adroit 
patriotism had cost them so much. When the 
House of Representatives and the Senate refused 
to grant this honor, Jefferson proposed to Wash- 
ington that the executive should do it. Washing- 
ton declined, saying, as Jefferson puts it, that "he 
should not know where to draw the line, if 
he began that ceremony. Mr. Adams was then 
Vice-President, and I thought General W. had 
his eye on him, whom he certainly did not love." 
Jefferson told him that the world had drawn so 
hard a line between himself and Dr. Franklin, on 
one side, and the residue of mankind, on the 
other, that mourning could be worn for those two, 
and the question still remain new and undecided 
for all others ; but Washington, not to be led into 
error by flattery, refused to accept his adroit sec- 
retary's advice. His own death was so clear a 
possibility, in these troubled days, that Maclay, 



LAUNCHING THE NATION 331 

who SO often attacked him, wrote : " Called to see 
the President. Every eye full of tears. His life 
despaired of." He was very much younger than 
the sterling old philosopher who had just ended 
his varied and glorious career, but his constitution 
was already shattered, and he hardly expected 
to see many years. 

Then, as now, one of the most constant plagues 
of a President's life was office-seekers, but Wash- 
ington simplified the situation by a rule which 
has never been so generally followed since, that 
of appointing for merit. The most affecting cases 
left him firm. The widow of General Wooster, for 
instance, aroused his sympathy for the great mis- 
fortunes which had befallen her family in conse- 
quence of the war, but he pointed out to her that 
as a public man he could not consult his private 
inclinations. Whenever he did allow sympathy to 
influence him, it was at his own inconvenience or 
cost, not that of the state. With relatives he was 
equally firm. Jefferson later w^rote, on the sub- 
ject of nepotism : " Mr. Adams degraded himself 
infinitely by his conduct on this subject, as Gen- 
eral Washington had done himself the greatest 
honor. With two such examples to proceed by, 
I should be doubly inexcusable to err." And 
during Washington's presidency, Jefferson wrote 
of him, " He never promises anything." At the 
same period Adams wrote : " No man, I believe. 



332 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

has influence with the President. He seeks infor- 
mation from all quarters, and judges more inde- 
pendently than any man I ever knew." On the 
political side his fairness was opposed by leading 
Federalists. Adams later said, " Washington ap- 
pointed a multitude of Democrats and Jacobins of 
the deepest die. I have been more cautious in this 
respect; but there is danger of proscribing under 
imputations of democracy, some of the ablest, 
most influential, and best characters in the Union." 
A Federalist wrote to Adams, " Though Gen- 
eral Washington conferred offices on some Tories, 
yet they were capable, and only undeserving." His 
requisites were fitness and conscientiousness : " In 
appointing persons to office, and more especially 
in the judicial department, my view^s have been 
much guided to those characters who have been 
conspicuous in their country ; not only from an 
impression of their services, but upon a consider- 
ation, that they had been tried, and that a readier 
confidence would be placed in them by the public 
than in others perhaps of equal merit, who had 
never been proved." 

For considering the claims of states there was 
then of course a reason which does not exist now, 
since the permanence of the league was by no 
means assured. As Washington wrote to his 
friend, David Stuart: "Common danger brought 
the States into confederacy, and on their union 



LAUNCHING THE NATION 333 

our safety and importance depend. A spirit of 
accommodation was the basis of the present con- 
stitution." 

It was partly this fear of disruption, which saw 
danger in reckless journalism, and partly personal 
sensitiveness, that made him feel newspaper 
bitterness. " I shall be happy, in the mean time, 
to see a cessation of the abuses of public officers, 
and of those attacks upon almost every measure 
of government, with which some of the gazettes 
are so strongly impregnated ; and which cannot 
fail, if persevered in with the malignancy with 
which they now teem, of rending the Union asun- 
der. ... In a word, if the government and the 
officers of it are to be the constant theme for 
newspaper abuse, and this too without conde- 
scending to investigate the motives or the facts, 
it will be impossible, I conceive, for any man 
living to manage the helm or to keep the machine 
together." But he did not always feel so keenly : 
" If nothing impeaching my honor or honesty is 
said, I care little for the rest." " From the com- 
plexion of some of our newspapers, foreigners 
would be led to believe, that inveterate political 
dissensions existed among us, and that we are 
on the very verge of disunion ; but the fact is 
otherwise." The Anti-Federal newspapers and 
politicians devoted themselves particularly to 
working up a panic about a standing army. " The 



334 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Indian war is forced forward to justify our having 
a standing army, and eleven unfortunate men, 
now in Algiers, is the pretext for fitting out a 
fleet to go to war with them." As this subject 
is so frequently discussed in our day, Washing- 
ton's views have a living interest. They were thus 
jotted down by him : — 

*' No man wishes less than the P to see a stand- 
ing army established ; but if Congress will not enact a 
proper Militia Law (not such a milk and water thing 
as I expect to see — if I ever see any) — Defense and 
the Garrisons will always require some troops — it has 
ever been my opinion that a select militia properly 
trained might supercede the necessity for these, — but 
I despair on that head." 

Some military efficiency was made necessary by 
troubles among the Indians. Washington treated 
them with justice, but the only facts in these wars 
which bear strongly on his character are given 
with valuable completeness in a full account of 
how Washington took the defeat of General St. 
Clair's expedition, given in " Washington in 
Domestic Life," by Richard Rush, whose father 
had it from Colonel Lear : — 

"Towards the close of a winter's day in 1 791, an offi- 
cer in uniform was seen to dismount in front of the 
President's in Philadelphia and, giving the bridle to his 
servant, knock at the door of his mansion. Learning 
from the porter that the President was at dinner, he said 
he was on pubUc business and had dispatches for the 



LAUNCHING THE NATION 335 

President. A servant was sent into the dining-room to 
give the information to Mr. Lear, who left the table and 
went into the hall where the officer repeated what he 
had said. Mr. Lear replied that, as the President's Sec- 
retary, he would take charge of the dispatches and de- 
liver them at the proper time. The officer made answer 
that he had just arrived from the western army, and his 
orders were to deliver them with all promptitude, and to 
the President in person ; but that he would wait his direc- 
tions. Mr. Lear returned, and in a whisper imparted to 
the President what had passed. General Washington 
rose from the table, and went to the officer. He was 
back in a short time, made a word of apology for his 
absence, but no allusion to the cause of it. He had 
company that day. Everything went on as usual. Din- 
ner over, the gentlemen passed to the drawing-room of 
Mrs. Washington, which was open in the evening. The 
General spoke courteously to every lady in the room,' 
as was his custom. His hours were early, and by ten 
o'clock all the company had gone. Mrs. Washington 
and Mr. Lear remained. Soon Mrs. Washington left 
the room. 

*' The General now walked backward and forward 
slowly for some minutes without speaking. Then he sat 
down on a sofa by the fire, telling Mr. Lear to sit down. 
To this moment there had been no change in his manner 
since his interruption at table. Mr. Lear now perceived 
emotion. This rising in him, he broke out suddenly, 
^ Ifs all over — St. Clair s defeated — routed; — tJie offi- 
cers nearly all killed, the men by ivJiolesale ; the ro?it 
complete — too shocking to think of — and a surprise into 
the bai'gairi I ' 

*' He uttered all this with great vehemence. Then he 
paused, got up from the sofa and walked about the room 
several times, agitated but saying nothing. Near the 



336 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

door he stopped short and stood still a few seconds, 
when his wrath became terrible. 

" ' Yes,' he burst forth, ^ here on this very spot, I took 
leave of him ; I wished his success and honor ; ^' yon have 
your instructions^' I said, ''from the Secretary of War, I 
had a strict eye to them, and will add but one word — 
bewair of a surprise. I repeat it, BEWARE OF A 
S URPRISE — you ktiozv how the htdians fight us. ' ' He 
went off with that as my last solemii warning thrown into 
his ears. And yet ! I to suffer that army to be cut to piece s^ 
hack'd, butchered, tomahawked, by a surprise — the very 
thing I guarded him against! O God, O God, lies 
worse than a murderer! hozv ca7i he aitswer it to his 
country ! — The blood of the slaiit is upon him — the curse 
of widows and orphajis — the curse of Heaven ! ' 

"This torrent came out in tones appalling. His very 
frame shook. It was awful, said Mr. Lear. More than 
once he threw his hands up as he hurled imprecations 
upon St. Clair. Mr. Lear remained speechless ; awed 
into breathless silence. 

" The roused Chief sat down on the sofa once more. 
He seemed conscious of his passion, and uncomfortable. 
He was silent. His warmth beginning to subside, he at 
length said in an altered voice : ' This must not go beyond 
this ivom.' Another pause followed — a longer one — 
when he said in a tone quite low, ' Gefieral St. Clair 
shall Jiave justice ; I looked hastily through the dispatches, 
saw the whole disaster but not all the particulars ; I will 
receive him without displeasui'e ; I will Jiear Jiim without 
prejudice ; he shall Jiave full justice.' 

" He was now, said Mr. Lear, perfectly calm. Half 
an hour had gone by. The storm was over ; and no 
sign of it was afterwards seen in his conduct or heard 
in his conversation. The result is known. The whole 
case was investigated by Congress. St. Clair was excul- 



LAUNCHING THE NATION 337 

pated and regained the confidence Washington had in 
him when appointing him to that command. He had 
put himself in the thickest of the fight and escaped un- 
hurt, though so ill as to be carried on a litter, and unable 
to mount his horse without help." 

In Jefferson's " Anas " is preserved an account 
of a consultation about Indian affairs, in which he, 
Washington, Knox, and Hamilton were present. 
One question was whether friendly Indians, espe- 
cially the Six Nations, should be invited to join 
the American troops. Jefferson thought it was a 
dishonorable policy. Hamilton said they could 
not be depended upon, as they were treacherous 
barbarians. Knox wished to employ five hundred 
of them. Washington, with the same views which 
he had expressed many years before, believed that 
some of them must be employed to keep them 
from fighting on the wrong side. It was decided 
not to invite them, but to tell them that if their 
young men could not be kept from fighting on 
one side or the other, the Americans would give 
them employment. It was wiiile thinking about 
officers for the Indian War, after St. Clair's de- 
feat, that Washington made some extremely valu- 
able notes, to submit to his cabinet, about the 
best general to put at the head of the army, the 
main part of which appear in this volume in 
facsimile. 



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354 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Adams wrote to his wife i\\ 1 796 : " Yesterday 
I dined with the President, in company with 
John Watts, the King of the Cherokees, with a 
large number of his chiefs and their wives ; among 
the rest the widow and children of Hanging Maw, 
a famous friend of ours who was basely murdered 
by some white people. The President dined four 
sets of Indians on four several days this last 
week." One amusing experiment of Washing- 
ton's on the Indian nature was to take some 
Creeks, who were visiting him, to see a portrait 
which Trumbull was painting of him. This was 
the picture in which the painter sought to depict 
Washington as he appeared at Princeton or 
Trenton. His entertaining the Indians by tak- 
ing them to see his portrait is an exhibition of 
the character which did everything he could 
think of to conciliate them, to secure justice for 
them from the grasping white speculators, and, 
when it was necessary, to overcome them 
promptly with sufficient force. 

On the trend of Washington's political ideas, 
during these trying years, much the strongest 
influence was that of Alexander Hamilton who, 
checked and moderated by the President, con- 
ceived and executed the most important measures 
of the administration. Of course, Washington 
remains, for all that, a larger man than any of his 
intellectual subordinates. " No, sir," says John 



LAUNCHING THE NATION 355 

Randolph, " these learned and accomplished men 
found their proper place under those who are 
fitted to command, and to command them among 
the rest. Such a man as Washington will say 
to a Jefferson, do you become my Secretary of 
State ; to Hamilton, do you take charge of my 
purse, or that of the nation, which is the same 
thing ; to Knox, do you be my master of horse." 
To the same effect is the judgment of Fisher 
Ames, that Washington's talents " were adapted 
to lead, without dazzling mankind ; and to draw 
forth and employ the talents of others, without 
being misled by them." It is partly for that rea- 
son that "his character must be studied before it 
will be striking," and the more adequately it is 
comprehended, the more impressive will it be- 
come. " The President," according to Jefferson, 
" heard with calmness the opinions and reasons 
of each, decided the course to be pursued, and 
kept the government steadily in it, unaffected by 
the agitation. The public knew well the dissen- 
sions of the Cabinet, but never had an uneasy 
thought on their account, because they knew also 
they had provided a regulating power which 
would keep the machine in steady movement." 
Jefferson says that Washington used to take the 
advice of the members of his Cabinet separately, 
in the first two or three years of his administra- 
tion, until the affairs of France and England 



356 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

threatened to embroil them, which rendered more 
general discussion desirable. " In these discus- 
sions, Hamilton and myself were daily pitted in 
the cabinet like two cocks. . . . The pain was 
for Hamilton and myself, but the public experi- 
enced no inconvenience." Jefferson accused his 
rival of seeking monarchy and corrupting the 
legislature, and Hamilton in return charged 
Jefferson and Madison with heading a faction of 
which the views would prove dangerous to the 
union. " They have a womanish attachment to 
France, and a womanish resentment against 
Great Britain." He also accused Jefferson of 
manoeuvring for the presidency, and it is true 
that among the greatest names in American 
history these two are the first who are identified 
with political manipulation as it has now become 
so familiar to us. How we look ahead and back- 
ward as we read these lines, of 1794, to an Indian 
chief : — 

" Immortal Tamany, of Indian race, 
Great in the field, and formost in the chase ! 
No puny saint was he, with fasting pale, 
He climbed the mountain, and he swept the vale, 

' Rush'd thro' the torrent with unequall'd might ; 
Your ancient saints would tremble at the sight. . . . 
To public views he added private ends, 
And loved his country most, and next his friends." 

Many papers written by Hamilton and other 
members and supporters of the government were 



LAUNCHING THE NATION 357 

attributed to Washington, who could not dis- 
avow them without weakening their influence. 
" When," says Pickering, " I first became ac- 
quainted with the general (in 1777), his writing 
was defective in grammar, and even in spelling, 
owing to the insufliciency of his early education ; 
of which, however, he gradually got the better in 
the subsequent years of his life, by the oflicial 
perusal of some excellent models, particularly those 
of Hamilton ; and reading numerous, indeed mul- 
titudes of letters to and from his friends and cor- 
respondents. This obvious improvement was 
begun during the war." Jefferson, in spite of all 
his disappointments, pays this tribute to Wash- 
ington in his "Anas," speaking of Hamilton's influ- 
ence : " He was true to the Republican charge 
confided to him ; and has solemnly and repeatedly 
protested to me, in our private conversations, that 
he would lose the last drop of his blood in support 
of it, and he did this the oftener, and with the 
more earnestness, because he knew my suspicions 
of Hamilton's designs against it, and wished to 
quiet them." At the same time Washington kept 
Hamilton fully informed of Jefferson's complaints 
and criticisms, and endeavored to make each see 
that the motives of his opponent might be as 
worthy as his own. 

One of the lighter incidents of that French 
upheaval, which did so much to embitter political 



358 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

life in America, is touched •upon in these words 
from that pupil of Washington who was then 
riding the Paris whirlwind : " Give me leave, 
my dear General, to present you with a picture 
of the Bastille, just as it looked a few days after 
I had ordered its demolition, with the main key 
of the fortress of despotism. It is a tribute, 
which I owe as a son to my adoptive father, as 
an Aide-de-camp to my General, as a missionary 
of liberty to its patriarch." Lafayette called 
Washington " the Patriarch and Generalissimo 
of universal liberty." Thomas Paine, who sent 
the key for Lafayette, wrote : " That the princi- 
ples of America opened the Bastille is not to be 
doubted ; and, therefore, this key comes to the 
right place." 

Here lovers of literary absurdity may be re- 
minded that among the Frenchmen who visited 
Washington in 1791 was Chateaubriand, then a 
very young man, who explained to the President 
his plan of going to the Gulf of California, Behring 
Strait, Hudson Bay, Labrador, and Canada. " A 
project so vast," calmly announces the hero of it, 
" undertaken by a young man, seeming to astonish 
Washington, and to provoke now and then certain 
signs of doubt and incredulity, the young French- 
man replied emphatically, ' But it is less difficult 
to discover the northwest passage than to create 
a nation, as you have done.' " 



LAUNCHING THE NATION 359 

" To this flattering reply Washington could not 
resist answering in English, ' Good, very good, 
young man,' and he engaged the visitor for dinner 
on the following day." 

Nevertheless, the grave President, whose tact 
and solemnity together can hardly have prevented 
an inner smile, did not change his mind about 
the project, which Chateaubriand naively says, 
" had none of that moderation in daring, of that 
instinct for the possible, which Washington had 
carried into his own efforts for the liberty of 
his country, and which was like the seal to his 
thoughts and to his words." 

In home affairs, which attracted Washington 
more than foreign complications, Hamilton was 
generally deemed omnipotent. Jefferson, in con- 
versation with Van Buren, always, as the latter 
records, spoke not of the Federal party, but of 
Hamilton, as doing this or that, and when Van 
Buren commented on the peculiarity of the expres- 
sion, Jefferson, smiling, attributed the habit to 
the universal conviction of the Republicans that 
Hamilton directed everything. Maclay, writing 
from New York, dated his letter " Hamiltonopo- 
lis," and referred to the secretary as " his Holi- 
ness." He spoke habitually of " Hamilton's 
people" and "Hamilton's clerks." The Feder- 
alists also, except Adams and a few of his friends, 
looked upon Hamilton as the leader of the party. 



36o GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Talleyrand told Van Buren that Hamilton was 
the ablest man he had met in the United States, 
and possibly anywhere. Gouverneur Morris, on 
the other hand, called him " more a theoretic than 
a practical man," easily excited, imaginative, vivid; 
but surely, if he had not proved it in a hundred 
other ways, the man was practical who "touched 
the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprang 
upon its feet." 

Adams wrote with probable inaccuracy of him: 
" He threatened his master, Washington, some- 
times with pamphlets upon his character and con- 
duct, and Washington, who had more regard to his 
reputation than I have, I say it with humility and 
mortification., might be restrained by his threats." 

In obtaining his ends, Hamilton used, on a 
larger scale than it had ever reached before, the 
barter system in Congress. By allowing the per- 
manent seat of Congress to go to the Potomac 
he secured in return sufficient votes to secure the 
assumption of state debts by the national govern- 
ment. Jefferson, who helped carry out this bar- 
gain, later said he had been " duped," or out-witted, 
by the still cleverer young leader against whom 
he played the expanding game of politics. Ham- 
ilton's aim was to turn the constitution into as 
efficient a governing machine as possible. How 
the Anti-Federalists felt about the document 
was expressed by Senator Maclay : " My mind 



LAUNCHING THE NATION 361 

revolts, In many instances, against the Consti- 
tution of the United States. Indeed, I am afraid 
it will turn out the vilest of all traps that ever 
was set to ensnare the freedom of an unsuspect- 
ing people." 

Such contests between the two parties, and be- 
tween the two secretaries, so wearied Washing- 
ton, that, tired of work, often sick, disgusted with 
quarrels, he longed to rest at Mount Vernon while 
he waited for death. He most ardently wished 
to escape a second term. His hearing was con- 
stantly growing worse, and he sometimes feared 
his other faculties might be deteriorating also. 
Everybody, however, urged him to continue, Re- 
publicans as well as Federalists. He told Jeffer- 
son that w^hen he first took the presidency " he 
was made to believe that in two years all would 
be well in motion and he might retire. At the 
end of two years he found some things still to be 
done. At the end of the third year he thought it 
was not worth while to disturb the course of 
things, as in one year more his office would ex- 
pire, and he was decided then to retire. And he 
was told there would still be danger in it. Cer- 
tainly if he thought so, he would conquer his 
longing for retirement. But he feared it would 
be said his former professions of retirement had 
been mere affectation, and that he was like other 
men, when once in office, he would not quit it." 



362 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

A very intelligent although possibly biassed view 
was given by Hamilton, in July, 1792 : — 

" I received the most sincere pleasure at finding in 
our late conversation, that there was some relaxation in 
the disposition you had before discovered to decUne a 
re-election. Since your departure, I have left no oppor- 
tunity of sounding the opinions of persons, whose 
opinions were worth knowing, on these two points : 
1st. The effect of your declining upon the public affairs, 
and upon your own reputation. 2dly. The effect of 
your continuing, in reference to the declarations you 
have made of your disinclination to public life ; and I 
can truly say that I have not found the least difference 
of sentiment, on either point. The impression is uni- 
form that your declining would be to be deplored as the 
greatest evil that could befall the country at the present 
juncture, and as critically hazardous to your own reputa- 
tion — that your continuance will be justified in the 
mind of every friend to his country, by the evident 
necessity of it. 'Tis clear, says every one with whom 
I have conversed, that the affairs of the national gov- 
ernment are not yet firmly established — that its ene- 
mies, generally speaking, are as inveterate as ever — that 
their enmity has been sharpened by its success, and by 
all the resentments which flow from disappointed pre- 
dictions and mortified vanity — that a general and 
strenuous effort is making in every State, to place the 
administration of it in the hands of its enemies, as if 
they were its safest guardians — that the period of the 
next House of Representatives is likely to prove the 
crisis of its permanent character — that if you continue 
in office, nothing materially mischievous is to be appre- 
hended — if you quit, much is to be dreaded — that the 
same motives which induced you to accept originally 



LAUNCHING THE NATION 363 

ought to decide you to continue till matters have assumed 
a more determined aspect — that indeed it would have 
been better, as it regards your own character, that you 
had never consented to come forward, than now to 
leave the business unfinished and in danger of being 
undone — that in the event of storms arising, there 
would be an imputation either of want of foresight or 
want of firmness — and in fine, that on public and per- 
sonal accounts, on patriotic and prudential considera- 
tions, the clear path to be pursued by you will be, again 
to obey the voice of your country's which it is not 
doubted will be as earnest and as unanimous as ever." 

Madison has recorded a conversation which he 
had with Washington on May 5th, 1792, in which 
Washington said that " what he desired was, to 
prefer that mode which would be most remote 
from the appearance of arrogantly presuming on 
his reelection in case he should not withdraw 
himself, and such a time as would be most con- 
venient to the public in making the choice of 
his successor." Madison thought that his retire- 
ment might have effects which ought not to be 
hazarded. The President replied that he could 
not see that he was necessary to the successful 
administration of the government ; " that on the 
contrary, he had from the beginning found him- 
self deficient in many of the essential qualifica- 
tions, owing to his inexperience in the forms of 
public business, his unfitness to judge of legal 
questions, and questions arising out of the Con- 



364 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

stitution ; that others more •conversant in such 
matters would be better able to execute the trust ; 
that he found himself, also, in the decline of life, 
his health becoming sensibly more infirm, and 
perhaps his faculties also ; that the fatigues and 
disagreeableness of his situation were in fact 
scarcely tolerable to him ; that he only uttered his 
real sentiments when he declared that his inten- 
tion would lead him rather to go to his farm, take 
his spade in his hand, and work for his bread, 
than remain in his present situation ; that it was 
evident, moreover, that a spirit of party in the 
Government was becoming a fresh source of diffi- 
culty, and he was afraid was dividing some [allud- 
ing to the Secretary of State and the Secretary 
of the Treasury] more particularly connected with 
him in the administration ; that there were dis- 
contents among the people which were also shew- 
ing themselves more and more, and that although 
the various attacks against public men and meas- 
ures had not in general been pointed at him, 
yet, in some instances, it had been visible that he 
was the indirect object, and it was probable the 
evidence would grow stronger and stronger that 
his return to private life was consistent with every 
public consideration, and, consequently, that he 
was justified in giving way to his inclination for it." 
Madison argued that a continuance of temper- 
ate government was the best way to allow both 



LAUNCHING THE NATION 365 

the enemies of the present government system 
and the enemies of republican government to 
lose their influence. Jefferson as a presidential 
candidate would incur certain Southern preju- 
dices. Adams was in favor of monarchy openly 
and Jay secretly. " Without appearing to be any 
wise satisfied with what I had urged, he turned 
the conversation to other subjects." However, 
the general voice was too strong for him, and he 
sadly consented to accept a second term, hardly 
expecting that his life would last through the 
period of labor and give him a final taste of rural 
happiness. Never had the voice of duty sounded 
harder, but now, as always, there was for him no 
other course than to obey. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 

" All his measures were right in their intent." — Webster. 

It was on August 2d, 1 793, soon after the begin- 
ning of his second administration, that Washing- 
ton, according to Jefferson's report, exclaimed 
that, "by God, he would rather be in his grave 
than in his present situation." Although he had 
been unanimously reelected, he took no pleasure 
in the prospect of continued work. His tone was 
growing always graver. After describing his 
feelings on reelection, he mentioned the death 
of an acquaintance, and added, "We shall all 
follow; some sooner and some later." A week 
after, he wrote to a relative : — " But the will of 
heaven is not to be controverted or scrutinized 
by the children of this world. It therefore be- 
cometh the creatures of it to submit to the will 
of the Creator, whether it be to prolong or to 
shorten the number of our days, to bless them 
with health, or afflict them with pain." William 
Sullivan, who during this second administration 
had repeated opportunities of seeing Washington, 

366 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 367 

said, "His deportment was invariably grave; it 
was sobriety that stopped short of sadness." To 
Gouverneur Morris Washington wrote during this 
term: — " I have nothing to ask ; and, discharging 
my duty, I have nothing to fear from invective. 
The acts of my administration will appear when 
I am no more, and the intelligent and candid 
part of mankind will not condemn my conduct 
without recurring to them." To Edmund Pen- 
dleton, on January 22d, 1795, "A month from 
this day, if I should live to see the completion 
of it, will place me on the wrong (perhaps it 
would be better to say on the advanced) side of 
my grand climacteric." 

Nevertheless, there was some pleasure in life 
for the aging and melancholy soldier, even borne 
down by labor and deprived of his farm, and a 
hint of some hours not without happiness or at 
least consolation may be found in these sentences 
from John Adams to his wife: — 

" Mrs. Washington told me a story on Tuesday, before 
a number of gentlemen, so ineffably ridiculous that I 
dare not repeat it in writing. The venerable lady 
laughed as immoderately as all the rest of us did." 

"Dr. Priestly is here. I drank tea with him at the 
President's on Thursday evening. He says he always 
maintained against Dr. Price, that old age was the 
pleasantest part of Hfe, and he finds it so. I think so 
too." 



368 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

To have talked with such men as Priestly, the 
philosophic friend of Dr. Franklin, must have 
been one of the solidest pleasures of Washing- 
ton's over-burdened life. Many of his old friends 
were drifting away. Public matters were rapidly 
alienating many of them, which was always a 
source of keen pain to so sensitive a man as 
Washington, and there were also more personal 
disagreements, one of them leading to the well- 
known violent abuse from Tom Paine, who was 
not made more amiable by his habitual drunken- 
ness. Jefferson wrote to Madison about Wash- 
ington : " He is also extremely affected by the 
attacks made and kept up on him in the public 
papers. I think he feels these things more than 
any person I ever met with." On the other 
hand, some of his friends still cheered him. " The 
different parties," wrote Gouverneur Morris from 
Paris, "pass away like the shadows in a magic 
lantern, and to be well with any one of them, 
would, in a short period, become the cause of 
unquenchable hatred with the others. Happy, 
happy America, governed by reason, by law, by 
the man whom she loves, whom she almost 
adores! It is the pride of my life to consider 
that man as my friend, and I hope long to be 
honored with that title. God bless you, my dear 
sir, and keep and preserve you." 

Among those public conditions which tended 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 369 

to separate him from some of his best friends 
none did so much (not even Hamilton's centrali- 
zation measures) as the conflict of feelings about 
foreign affairs ; love of France, on the one hand, 
and suspicion of her, on the other, reaching fever 
heat and scorching from both sides the man who 
stood between. His view of our foreign relations, 
which created storms while he lived, has often 
been used as a gospel since his death. To a 
peer of Great Britain Washington wrote : " I 
believe it is the sincere wish of United America 
to have nothing to do with the political intrigues, 
or the squabbles, of European nations ; but, on 
the contrary, to exchange commodities and live 
in peace and amity with all the inhabitants of 
the earth. . . . Under such a system, if we are 
allowed to pursue it, the agricultural and mechani- 
cal arts, the wealth and population of these States, 
will increase with that degree of rapidity as to 
baffle all calculation, and must surpass any idea 
your Lordship can hitherto have entertained on 
the occasion." To Patrick Henry he wrote that 
he washed to see the United States : " Indepen- 
dent of all and under the influence of none. In a 
word, I want an American character, that the 
powers of Europe may be convinced we act for 
ourselves, and not for others. This, in my judg- 
ment, is the only way to be respected abroad and 
happy at home ; and not, by becoming the parti- 



370 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

sans of Great Britian or Francie, create dissensions, 
disturb the public tranquility, and destroy, per- 
haps for ever, the cement which binds the union." 
Again, to Timothy Pickering, who had become 
his secretary of state. " Do justice to all, and 
never forget that we are Americans, the remem- 
brance of which w^ill convince us that we ought 
not to be French or English." 

Of course these principles were laid down with 
a view not to the future but to the situation in 
which the young nation then was, as shown by 
these w^ords to James Monroe : 

" If this country could, consistently with its engage- 
ments, maintain a strict neutrality and thereby preserve 
peace, it was bound to do so by motives of policy, inter- 
est, and every other consideration, that ought to actuate 
a people situated and circumstanced as we are, already 
deeply in debt, and in a convalescent state from the 
struggle we have been engaged in ourselves." 

It is only fair also to remember these words to 
Congress: — 

'* The United States ought not to indulge a persua- 
sion, that, contrary to the order of human events, they 
will for ever keep at a distance those painful appeals to 
arms, with which the history of every other nation 
abounds. There is a rank due to the United States 
among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely 
lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to 
avoid insult, we must be able to repel it ; if we desire to 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 371 

secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of 
our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at 
all times ready for war." 

The degree to which he considered the tempo- 
rary weakness of the country comes out again in 
these lines to Gouverneur Morris : — 

*' Nothing short of self-respect, and that justice which 
is essential to a national character, ought to involve us 
in war ; for sure I am, if this country is preserved in 
tranquillity twenty years longer, it may bid defiance in a 
just cause to any power whatever ; such in that time will 
be its population, wealth, and resources." 

This broad, patriotic, and tolerant attitude in 
foreign affairs has won Washington equal credit 
at home and abroad. John Adams wrote to his 
wife in 1 794 : " Nearly one half of the continent 
is in constant opposition to the other, and the 
President's situation, which is highly responsible, 
is very distressing. He made me a very friendly 
visit yesterday, which I returned to-day. . . . 
His earnest desire to do right and his close appli- 
cation to discover it, his deliberate and compre- 
hensive view of our affairs with all the world, 
appeared in a very amiable and respectable light." 
Lord Brougham has said : " Nor was there ever 
among all the complacent self-delusions with 
which the fond conceits of national vanity are apt 
to intoxicate us, one more utterly fantastical than 



3/2 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

the notion wherewith the pbliticians of the Pitt 
school were wont to flatter themselves and beguile 
their followers, that simply because the Great 
American would not yield either to the bravadoes 
of the Republican envoy, or the fierce democracy 
of Jefferson, he therefore had become weary of 
republics, and a friend to monarchy and to 
England." 

The adherents of France were much more vio- 
lent than those of England, and there is much 
truth, though some exaggeration in the pictu- 
resque description which Adams wrote to Jef- 
ferson: "You certainly never felt the terrorism 
excited by Genet, in 1793, when ten thousand 
people in the streets of Philadelphia day after 
day threatened to drag Washington out of his 
house, and effect a revolution in the government, 
or compel it to declare war in favor of the French 
revolution and against England. The coolest 
and the firmest minds, even among the Quakers 
in Philadelphia, have given their opinions to me, 
that nothing but the yellow fever, which removed 
Dr. -Hutchinson and Jonathan Dickinson Ser- 
geant from this world, could have saved the 
United States from a fatal revolution of govern- 
ment." Hostile demonstrations of course had no 
effect on Washington, and, finding Genet unbear- 
ably troublesome in his efforts to stir up trouble, 
he had him recalled by the French government. 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 373 

Attacks on the President were also frequent 
and virulent on account of his effort to settle 
questions which had remained in dispute under 
the treaty of i ySi, between Great Britain and the 
United States. When a mission to Enorland 
became necessary after the war, Washington 
thought of Hamilton as envoy extraordinary; but 
the opposition to him was strong, and Hamil- 
ton himself recommended Jay, who was chosen. 
The treaty which he signed gave great dissatis- 
faction in America. Some opposed it because 
they thought the British had the best of it, others 
because it might give offence to France. Monroe 
speaks of binding " the aristocracy of this country 
stronger and closer to that of the other," and 
treats Hamilton and Jay as if their deepest love 
were for Great Britain. Washington, like many 
of his wisest advisers, did not like the treaty, but 
he wished peace. Although the trade regulations 
were much against the United States, the promise 
by Great Britain to surrender the western posts 
which she had held, and thus closed the great 
western country against free development, and the 
feeling that peace was established, were looked 
upon by the Federalists generally as more im- 
portant than anything else. John Adams thought 
the President should never have hesitated. Wash- 
ington asked many opinions. To Hamilton he 
wrote : — 



374 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

" It is not the opinion of those who were determined 
(before it was promulgated) to support or oppose it, that 
I am solicitous to obtain ; for these I well know rarely 
do more than examine the side to which they lean ; 
without giving the reverse the consideration it deserves; 
— possibly without a wish to be apprised of the reasons 
on which the objections are founded. — My desire is to 
learn from dispassionate men who have a knowledge of 
the subject, and abilities to judge of it, the genuine 
opinion they entertain of each article of the instrument ; 
and the result of it in the aggregate." 

This mieht well remind us of Lowell's lines 
about Washington : — 

"His was the impartial vision of the great 
Who see not as they wish, but as they find." 

Copies of the treaty were burned in the streets 
and Jay was several times hanged in effigy. The 
feeling for war with Great Britain was strong in 
the House of Representatives. The public dem- 
onstrations were taken by Washington at their 
true w^orth. " It is very desirable," he wrote to 
Hamilton, " to ascertain, if possible, after the 
paroxysm of the fever is a little abated, what the 
real temper of the people is concerning it ; for at 
present the cry against the Treaty is like that 
against a mad dog ; and every one, in a manner, 
seems engaged in running it down." He thought 
what was happening, however, important enough 
to make him cut short a rest at Mount Vernon. 
" I am excited to this resolution by the violent 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 375 

and extraordinary proceedings, which have and 
are about taking place in the northern parts of 
the Union, and may be expected in the southern." 
Some of the disturbances were thus described by 
Pickering to John Quincy Adams : — 

" The New York meeting was numerous and tumultu- 
ous. Colonel Hamilton presented himself to support the 
treaty. For the noise of the multitude he could not 
be heard, and the throwing of stones endangered his 
life. . . . 

" Philadelphia followed next. At the adjourned meet- 
ing I was present to see their proceedings and judge of 
their numbers. The whole assembly did not exceed 
fifteen hundred, of whom a full half were Frenchmen 
and other spectators." 

There was some doubt about the advisability of 
the President's addressing Congress, when it met, 
on the subject of the treaty. Jay wrote to Pick- 
ering : — 

" It appears to me to be a good ge7ieral rule that 
the President should very rarely come forward, except 
officially. A degree of reserve seems requisite to the 
preservation of his dignity and authority. Any address 
would be exposed to indecent strictures. ... A more 
early address, by correcting public opinion, would ren- 
der it a check on some Representatives, who might 
otherwise favor the opposition. ... In a word, there 
are pros and cons about the address ; but it is a point 
on which I should confide in the President's judgment, 
which very seldom errs." 



3/6 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Washington did not make the address, but 
when the treaty came to him from the Senate, he 
ratified it, though not without serious doubts. It 
was ratified in England and returned, whereupon 
Washington promulgated it by a proclamation, 
without consulting the House of Representatives, 
whose duty it was to make appropriations for 
carrying it into effect. The House thereupon 
called upon the President for the documents con- 
cerning the negotiations about the treaty. Wash- 
ington flatly refused. Madison wrote to Jefferson, 
" The absolute refusal was as unexpected as the 
tone and tenor of the message are improper and 
indelicate." Chief Justice Marshall said of Wash- 
ington's answer, " The terms, in which this de- 
cided, and as it w^ould seem, unexpected negative 
to the call for papers was conveyed, appeared to 
break the last chord of that attachment w^hich had 
hitherto bound some of the active leaders of the 
opposition to the person of the President." Jeffer- 
son thought that, taken with the opposition of the 
Republicans to the treaty, the support of the Fed- 
eralists " had made him all their own." The 
same brilliant Democrat wrote, " It would give 
you a fever were I to name to you the apostates 
who have gone over to these heresies, men who 
were Samsons in the field and Solomons in the 
council, but who have had their heads shorn by 
the harlot Ensfland." In the National Gazette 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 377 

of Philadelphia, edited by Philip Freneau, and 
supported by friends of Jefferson and Madison, 
appeared a parody of the Athanasian creed, con- 
taining the following : — 

" Whoever would live peaceably in Philadelphia, above 
all things it is necessary that he hold the Federal faith 
is this, that there are two governing powers in this 
country, both equal, and yet one superior : which faith 
except one keep undefiledly, without doubt he shall be 
abused everlastingly. 

'' The Briton is superior to the American, and the 
American is inferior to the Briton ; and yet they are 
equal, and the Briton shall govern the American. . . . 

'' For like as we are compelled by the British Constitu- 
tion book to acknowledge that subjects must submit 
themselves to their monarchs, and be obedient to them 
in all things ; 

** So we are forbid by our Federal executive to say that 
we are at all influenced by our treaty with France, or to 
pay regard to what it enforceth." 

Madison wrote to Monroe, on February 26th, 
1 796 : " The birthday of the President has been 
celebrated with greater splendour than ever. The 
crisis explains the policy. A circumstance has 
taken place, however, more indicative in its nature 
than any display within the fashionable circle. 
You will recollect the usage of adjourning for 
half an hour to compliment the President on the 
anniversary of his birth. Last year there were 
but thirteen dissentients ; this year, the motion 



378 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

to adjourn was negatived by fifty against thirty- 
eight." The same leader had shortly before 
written in his " Political Observations " : " Will 
it be more than truth to say, that this great and 
venerable name is too often assumed for what 
cannot recommend itself, and for what there is 
neither proof nor probability that its sanction can 
be obtained ? Do arguments fail ? Is the public 
mind to be encountered ? There are not a few 
ever ready to invoke the name of Washington." 
A Massachusetts physician, brother to Fisher 
Ames, exclaimed in his diary : " W^ashington now 
defies the whole Sovereign that made him what 
he is — and can unmake him again. Better his 
hand had been cut off when his glory was at its 
height before he blasted all his Laurels. . . . 
Federal Government become near as arbitrary as 
any European, the worst Tories & Conspirators 
with England caressed." 

This difficult political settlement, which cost 
Washington so many public supporters, and 
showed his willingness to use every scrap of the 
President's power in an emergency, alienated 
one of his closest personal friends. Edmund 
Randolph, who had become Secretary of State, 
went far in his intrigues in favor of France. The 
proof of his improper behavior first reached his 
fellow Secretaries, Timothy Pickering and Roger 
Wolcott, who requested the President specially 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 379 

to come to Philadelphia. When Washington 
arrived there he sent for Pickering, who found 
the President at table with Randolph. 

" Very soon," says Pickering, " after taking a 
glass of wine, the President rose, giving me a 
wink. I rose and followed him into another 
room. ' What,' said he, ' is the cause of your 
writing me such a letter ? ' ' That man,' said I, 
' in the other room (pointing toward that in 
which we had left Randolph), ' is a traitor.' " He 
then told Washington the substance of the dam- 
aging letter which had been discovered. 

" Let us return to the other room," said the 
President, " to prevent any suspicion of the cause 
of our withdrawing." 

Washington soon met his Cabinet as usual, 
the Secretary of State being present. No refer- 
ence was made to the letter from the French 
minister, which w^as the document showing that 
Randolph had charged the American government 
with using bribery to secure the adoption of the 
British treaty. At this Cabinet meeting Ran- 
dolph strenuously opposed the ratification of the 
treaty, and urged further postponement. In 
conclusion, the President said, " I will ratify 
the treaty," which he did. A rupture with the 
Secretary of State, before the treaty was finally 
ratified would, in Pickering's opinion, have en- 
dangered the public interests. Of the silence 



38o GEORGE WASHINGTON 

which the President deemed it wise to pre- 
serve, Randolph, after the breach, wrote to 
Washington : — 

" At all hours of the day I was ready to obey your 
summons. On every day, except Sunday, and perhaps 
twice a day, I had a private interview with you. Twice 
I spoke to you of the warmth which Messrs. Wolcott 
and Pickering had discovered on the I2th in the discus- 
sion of the treaty in your room, and which undoubtedly, 
as it now appears, sprang from a knowledge of that 
letter. On the 14th you veiled the meditated stroke 
by a visit at my house. On the 15th you invited me in 
the most cordial way to dine with a party of chosen 
friends, and placed me at the foot of your table. On 
the 1 6th the same air of hospitality was assumed. Mr. 
Wolcott had been privy to the letter at least from the 
28th of July, and the President of the United States 
from the nth of August, and yet he had buried it at 
the bottom of his soul, until the 19th of August, when 
the final catastrophe seemed to be secure." 

Randolph naturally charged that Hamilton, the 
universal scapegoat, was at the bottom of the 
trouble. 

On the 19th Washington, before a Cabinet 
meeting,^ asked the Secretaries, Pickering, Brad- 
ford, and Wolcott, to watch Randolph's counte- 
nance while he read the damaging despatch. 
" The President fixed his own eye upon him ; 

1 The most important account of these incidents, except Ran- 
dolph's own, is in the life of Pickering, which I mainly follow. 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 381 

and I never before, or afterward, saw it look so 
animated." 

It was after the regular business that Washing- 
ton drew from his pocket the letter of the French 
minister, Fauchet, handed it to Randolph, in the 
presence of the other Secretaries, and stated that 
there were matters in it which called for explana- 
tion. Randolph read it through, expressed a wish 
to examine it further, withdrew, and instantly sent 
in his resignation. 

Randolph published a " vindication," which in- 
jured him and left Washington's position as strong 
as ever. In Jefferson's copy the following pas- 
sages, aimed at the President, were underscored : 
" A temper which under the exterior of cool and 
slow deliberation rapidly catches a prejudice, and 
with difficulty abandons it." " Your invincible 
repugnance to retract." 

From the life of Pickering I take the only full 
account of how Washington received this attack, 
^ — an account which is highly colored, perhaps, 
but probably in substance accurate, and at any 
rate alive as few authentic anecdotes of Wash- 
ington are : — 

" It reached his hand soon after its issue. He 
read it through, and immediately sent for Colonel 
Pickering. Receiving him with his usual com- 
posure of manner, and requesting him to be 
seated, he spoke as follows, in a slow and sup- 



382 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

pressed voice, uttering each word with dehbera- 
tion, and pausing between the sentences : — 

" ' Colonel Pickering, I feel that a necessity is 
upon me to unburden my mind to some one, and 
you will pardon me for the liberty I have taken 
in sending for you on this occasion. 

" ' Peyton Randolph was my dearest friend. 
He died suddenly, in October, 1775. In an hour 
of affectionate and solemn communion, in which 
he had expressed an expectation that before long 
he would thus be removed, he begged me to be 
a friend to his nephew and adopted son Edmund. 
I promised that I would be to him as a father: 
that promise has been sacredly kept. If, in any 
instance, I have been swayed by personal and 
private feelings, in the exercise of political influ- 
ence or of official patronage and power, it has 
been in this.' 

" Thus far there had been no change in his 
countenance or manner, except a slight indication 
of increasing sensibility when uttering the last 
two or three sentences. He proceeded, with 
somewhat longer pauses and a more compressed 
and restrained expression : — 

" ' Upon taking command of the army of the 
United Colonies, in June, 1775, I made him, then 
not twenty-two years of age, one of my Aids ; as 
such he was a member of my military family. 
My entire interest was actively given to place 



THE SECOND ADiMINlSTRATION 383 

and advance him in the path of poUtical and 
professional promotion, for which his talents and 
education remarkably qualified him. By the aid 
of my influence he rose from one distinguished 
post to another in rapid succession, and at an 
early age, in the civil service of Virginia; a mem- 
ber of the Convention that framed the first Con- 
stitution of that State, in 1776; in the same year 
Attorney-General of Virginia, — an office his 
Uncle Peyton, as well as his father and grand- 
father, had held; a delegate to Congress in 1779; 
Governor of Virginia in 1 786 ; and a member of 
the Convention that framed the Constitution of 
the United States. I made him Attorney-General 
of the States, at the organization of the Federal 
government; a member of my cabinet from the 
first. In 1794 I made him Secretary of State, 
placing him at the head of my official council ; 
in my cabinet, from the beginning, he has been 
admitted to my utmost confidence. I have held 
with him a daily intimacy. He occupied the 
chief seat among the guests at my table/ 

" At this point Washington rose to his feet, — 
the pamphlet in his hand, — his whole aspect and 
manner showing the storm that was gathering, 
and his voice rising as he spoke : — 

'"While at the head of my cabinet he has been 
secretly, but actively, plotting with the opponents 
of my administration, consulting and contriving 



384 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

with them for the defeat of its measures ; he, the 
Secretary of State, to whose trust the foreign re- 
lations of the country are confided, has been con- 
ducting an intrigue with the ambassador of a 
foreign government, to promote the designs of 
that government, which were to overthrow the ad- 
ministration of which he, Randolph, was a trusted 
member, receiving from that ambassador money 
to aid in accomplishing that object ; soliciting 
from him more for the same purpose, — all this 
time I have had entire faith in him, and been led 
by that faith to pay deference to his representa- 
tions, to delay the ratification of the British treaty, 
thereby exposing myself to the imputation of hav- 
ing been intimidated by party clamor from the 
discharge of a public duty, an imputation con- 
trary to the truth, a thought abhorrent to my feel- 
ings and to my nature, and now he has written 
and published this.' 

" As he uttered these last words, he threw the 
pamphlet down, and gave way to a terrific burst 
of denunciation in unrestrained expressions. He 
then calmly resumed his seat. The storm was 
over. With perfect serenity other business was 
entered upon, and the name or thought of Ed- 
mund Randolph was never again suffered to 
disturb his temper." 

Immediately after the publication of the pam- 
phlet Washington asked Hamilton what ought 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 385 

to be done about it, and his adviser answered : 
" His attempts against you are viewed by all whom 
I have seen, as base. They will certainly fail of 
their aim, and will do good, rather than harm, to 
the public cause and to yourself. It appears to 
me that, by you, no notice can be, or ought to be 
taken of the publication. It contains its own 
antidote." 

Before his death Randolph wrote to a nephew 
of Washington thus : " If I could now present 
myself before your venerated uncle, it would be 
my pride to confess my contrition, that I suffered 
my irritation, let the cause be what it might, to 
use some of those expressions respecting him, 
which, at this moment of my indifference to the 
ideas of the world, I wish to recall, as being 
inconsistent with my subsequent conviction." 

It was too great sympathy with France, also, 
and the Revolution, which led to the recall of 
Monroe, who was minister there. Monroe pub- 
lished a " Short View " of the controversy between 
him and the President, which merely shows how 
strong Washington's judgment was. On his own 
copy Washington made many caustic observa- 
tions, the tone of which is indicated by the page 
reproduced in this volume. 



2C 




386 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Z »lviii J 

In January 1796, Mr. Randolph's pamplilet was received 
in Paris, which contained fsveral of the Prefident's letters, in 
fome of which the French republic was fpoken of in terms by 
no means refpecbful, and the friends of the French revolution 
in the United States reproached with being the friends <« of 
"War and confufion ;" and fliortly after this, was received alfo, 
the Prefident's addrefs to congrefs, upon the opening of the 
feflion, which in treating of the flourifhing condition of the 
"United States, contrafted it with the miferable, famifhed, and 
diforganixed ftate of other powers. Much too was faid in 
that .iddrefs of the advantage of out accommodation with Bri- 
lain, as likewife of the favomjble difpofition of that power 

Cf)^ J^jQfC'^-K ♦"'"^'•d'! tiQ. without the (lighteft attention being fhewn to the 
i^f% ]^,_ ^^j^mtt tk "Fi-p^'-^i rppiiKi;A--^iinlpfQ indeed it was referred to in the 

'^^**ZS^ ^^''^^^^^^i^t'P^^^^^^ '^'^ diflrefs above noticed, as was inferred by the 
^A<''^*-*^^*^»23F'rench government, as I underfiood from good authority, at 

' ^"^^^V^^. In the courfe of the year 1795, the French government 
.^^'"T T"'!' irff*^^^ repealed, as already ihewn, all the decrees which were 
^^ Jt . _Jf. ^ ■^'^■<.P^^^d during the million p£ Mr. Morrisj under which our 
CT^^^Ttt' 5^tradc had been hiirrafletfT-'ind had alfo, notwithfhnding its 

>j^ ,j.^>-?^** ^^^iufpicion of the contents of the Biitilh treaty, fhewn a difpo- 
/f^^^ j»j} ^f ^ ^^filioiuo affift us in other cafes, and had a£lually taken meafures 
JLf' ^ '^^^ j^j- Vi. ^" ^"^''^ "^ '" thofe of Spain and the B?.rbary powers ; yet none 
'^C^ It ■ ^ i< ^aP^ thofe a^s orofthedilpofition whichproducedthemwereeven 
/ ^ ^^^/^J^^^^^^ceH at in the prefidem's addrefs to congrefs, although it 
7^ >! ■ ^-was to be inferred, fuch notice would have produced a good ef- 

^^ *'^^/*^**^feO, and although it was then as juft as It was politic to no- 
J^*'*^^^^ jA^l ^^lice them^^^his condud in the adminiftration was the more 
^^f'^'^^jCf^T'/f oclraordinary,. from the confideration that thofe decrees, by 
/^^*»^/' ^|-^^*r*"-whofe authority our trade was harrafled, with the harraflment 
»'^^i'^-*-'^:-^^-«^^^»5tfelf, had been announced in former communications to the X . 
"^^ y^ ?^ ' »■ ■ ^•^ congrefs, when the Britiih depredations were announced.'^ It ^f*^ 
^» i^ o // < ^ • , VA V feemed natural therefore, now that fo much was faid upon the ^^T^ 
lr,\ C/^^ •• * fubjea of our accommodation with England, that fomethingA**** 
(2y. :y-/^L>^^Z^J^ ^p^y alfo be faid ofthe repeal of thofe decrees by the French f^^i 
'^^ P^^^J^*^, Ogovernment, as of the proofs of friendfhip it had fhewn us ^| 
A^Z^^^A*-*^*^-^^in other refpe^s. But this was not done. /CyM 

r'i\ A -0 / Under fuch circumftances it was impofTible forme to fuc- H 

\2) /^SKZ./.^m^ ^ee^l ;„ conciliating the French government towards the 
<r&^*- »«W^*-U«^ Britifh treaty, fmce my efforts were not only not feconded 
<2^^,v^«iL«^a«4i?jn that refpea, by our adminiftration, but abfolutely coun- 
ct.*^ ^.^^p-^*-^ teraded by if.'*"^'everthelefs I continued to purfue the fame 
^e<ZZ»^P ^ tfw^ Jlneofcondua that I haddone before, being refolved not to 
ihJX^ ^«ji-#"X^^ relax in my efforts, however unfuccefsful I might \)t. (C J y^f^ 



p 






cJ^ ^ e-^-r-^<?^=^/^ 




A Page from Monroe's "Short View." showing Annotations by 

Washington. 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 387 

Randolph's pamphlet charged Washington with 
being a victim to party spirit. So far was that 
allegation from the truth that the President even 
offered a Cabinet position to Patrick Henry, a 
deed which led one leader of the opposition to 
write to another, — Madison to Jefferson, " The 
offer of the Secretaryship of State to P. Henry 
is a circumstance which I should not have 
believed, without the most unquestionable testi- 
mony." In choosing men for high office Wash- 
ington decided in complete independence, although 
his fullest information came, as usual, from Alex- 
ander Hamilton. 

The tax on distilled liquors, one of Hamilton's 
measures, had produced the Whiskey Rebellion, in 
1794. So violent was the demonstration, encour- 
aged by the societies of the opposition party, called 
Democratic Societies, against paying the tax, that 
Washington himself went to put down the insur- 
rection, a step which one violent anti-administra- 
tive journalist argued was unconstitutional, as 
Congress was in session. Washington used 
strong language about these societies, which led 
Madison to write to Monroe : " You will readily 
understand the business detailed in the newspapers 
relating to the denunciation of the 'self-created 
Societies.' The introduction of it by the Presi- 
dent was, perhaps, the greatest error of his political 
life." Jefferson was much more severe about what 



388 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

he called an attack on the freedom of discussion. 
Certainly the President's words lacked modera- 
tion. This upheaval was, of course, charged up 
to Hamilton. " The servile copyist of Mr. Pitt," 
wrote Jefferson to Monroe, "thought he too 
must have his alarms, his Insurrections and 
plots against the Constitution. Hence the in- 
credible fact that the freedom of association, of 
conversation, and of the press, should in the 5th 
year of our government have been attacked 
under the form of a denunciation of the demo- 
cratic societies, a measure which even England, 
as boldly as she is advancing to the establish- 
ment of an absolute monarchy, has not yet been 
bold enough to attempt. Hence too the example 
of employing military force for civil purposes, 
when It has been Impossible to produce a single 
fact of Insurrection, unless that term be entirely 
confounded with occasional riots, and when the 
ordinary process of law had been resisted indeed 
in a few special cases, but by no means generally, 
nor had its effect been duly tried. But it answered 
the favorite purposes of strengthening govern- 
ment and increasing the public debt." The Insur- 
gents melted away on the approach of the troops. 
Washington, narrating the result to Congress, said: 
" It has demonstrated, that our prosperity rests on 
solid foundations ; by furnishing an additional 
proof, that my fellow-citizens understand the true 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION ' 389 

principles of government and liberty ; that they 
feel their inseparable union." These last two 
words are interesting in the light of one of Daniel 
Webster's weightiest phrases. 

His public troubles, and his never flagging love 
of rural life, made Washington firm in his deter- 
mination to retire at the end of his second term. 
This was a purely personal decision. He believed, 
as we have seen, in three terms, or more, if the cir- 
cumstances called for them. He deemed the fear 
of autocracy, in a government like ours, an un- 
mixed absurdity. It w^as only that he felt his 
powers flagging, and that the struggle of public 
life distressed him more and more. Of course 
there were a great number who urged him to re- 
main. Jay wrote: "Attachment to you, as well 
as to my country, urges me to hope and to pray, 
that you will not leave the work unfinished. Re- 
main with us at least while the storm lasts, and 
until you can retire like the sun in a calm, un- 
clouded evening. May every blessing here and 
hereafter attend you." The idea seems to have 
prevailed somewhat in Great Britain that when- 
ever Washington was removed the federal union 
would dissolve and disorder ensue. King wrote 
from London to Hamilton : " Nothing can exceed 
the applause that is here given to our govern- 
ment, and no American who has not been in 
England can have a just idea of the admiration 



390 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

expressed among all parties fC)r General Washing- 
ton. It is a common observation, that he is not 
only the most illustrious, but also the most meri- 
torious character that has hitherto appeared." 
Jefferson wrote to a correspondent in January, 
'97 : " Such is the popularity of the President that 
the people will support him in whatever he will 
do or will not do, without appealing to their own 
reason or to anything but their own feelings 
toward him. His mind has so long been used to 
unlimited applause that it could not brook contra- 
diction, or even advice offered unasked. To ad- 
vice, when asked, he is very open. I have long 
thought therefore it was best for the republican 
interest to soothe him by flattering where they 
could approve his measures, and to be silent where 
they disapprove, that they may not render him 
desperate as to their affections, and entirely indif- 
ferent to their wishes, in short to lie on their oars 
while he remains at the helm, and let the bark 
drift as his will and a superintending providence 
shall direct." A few days later he wrote to Madi- 
son: "It was impossible the bank and paper 
mania should not produce great and extensive 
ruin. The President is fortunate to get off just 
as the bubble is bursting, leaving others to hold 
the bag. Yet, as his departure will mark the 
moment when the difficulties begin to work, you 
will see, that they will be ascribed to the new 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 391 

administration, and that he will have his usual 
good fortune of reaping credit from the good acts 
of others and leaving to them that of his errors." 

Some of John Adams's letters to his wife give 
glimpses into Washington's feelings: — 

9th. April 796. " The old hero looks very grave of 
late." 

30 Dec. 96. " The President says he must sell 
something to enable him to clear out. . . . The Presi- 
dent is now engaged in his speculations upon a vault 
which he intends to build for himself, not to sleep but 
to lie down in." 

15 Feb./<^6. "After twenty years of such service 
with such success, and with no obligation to any one, 
I would retire, before my constitution failed, before my 
memory failed, before I should grow peevish and fret- 
ful, irresolute or improvident. I would no longer put 
at hazard a character so dearly earned, at present so 
uncontaminated, but liable by the weakness of age to 
be impaired in a moment He has, in the most solemn 
manner, sworn before many witnesses at various times 
and on several occasions, and it is now, by all who are 
in the secret, considered as irrevocable as the laws of 
Medes and Persians." 

Washington's feeling of responsibility for the 
future of his country led to the careful prepara- 
tion of his Farewell Address, the composition of 
which was the most notable, perhaps, of all the 
personal services executed by Hamilton for his 
friend. The ideas were Washington's, chosen 



392 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

from his own mind and the* minds of Hamilton, 
Jay, Madison, and others, but the draft in its final 
form was the work of Hamilton, and it is written 
with a literary vigor quite beyond the reach of 
Washington himself. In May, 1796, the Presi- 
dent wrote to Hamilton : " Even if you should 
think it best to throw the whole into a different 
form, let me request, notwithstanding, that my 
draught may be returned to me (along with yours) 
with such amendments and corrections as to ren- 
der it as perfect as the formation is susceptible of ; 
curtailed if too verbose; and relieved of all tautol- 
ogy not necessary to enforce the ideas in the 
original or quoted part. My wish is that the 
whole may appear in a plain style, and be handed 
to the public in an honest, unaffected, simple, 
part." Hamilton chose to write a new draft, and 
in doing so he produced the most famous and the 
most influential piece of advice in the history of 
our country. The credit is properly given to 
Washington by the world, for the experience was 
his, the solution his, Hamilton his; and it is only 
among the educated few that the dashing lieuten- 
ant receives his meed of praise. From that great 
work and important suggestions Hamilton ranged 
down to such minute advice as this, given as late 
as November, 1 796 : " The true rule on this point 
would be to receive the Minister at your levees 
with a dignified reserve, holding an exact medium 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 393 

between an offensive coldness and cordiality. The 
point is a nice one to be hit, but no one will know 
better how to do it than the President." 

Hamilton, in sending Washington the paper, 
wrote : " I have the pleasure to send you here- 
with a certain draft, which I have endeavored to 
make as perfect as my time and engagements 
would permit. It has been my object to render 
this act importantly and lastingly useful, and 
avoiding all just cause of present exception, to 
embrace such reflections and sentiments as will 
wear well, progress in approbation with time, and 
redound to future reputation. How far I have 
succeeded you will judge." How well he suc- 
ceeded, we know. Washington in his reply said, 
" The sentiments therein contained, are extremely 
just, and such as ought to be inculcated." A 
little later he wrote Hamilton : " I have given the 
paper herewith enclosed several serious and atten- 
tive readings, and prefer it greatly to the other 
draughts, being more copious on material points, 
more dignified on the whole, and with less ego- 
tism ; of course, less exposed to criticism, and 
better calculated to meet the eye of discerning 
readers (foreigners particularly, whose curiosity I 
have little doubt will lead them to inspect it atten- 
tively, and to pronounce their opinions on the 
performance)." He made suggestions in the 
margin, part of which Hamilton acted upon in a 



394 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

revised draft, and part of which he thought out of 
place. Of the whole document Hamilton said, 
" Had I health enough, it was my intention to 
have written it over, in which case I would both 
have improved and abridged." This is the paper 
of which the " venerable gentleman " in " The 
Professor at the Breakfast Table," remarked, 
" Nothing better than that since the last chapter 
in Revelation. Five-and-forty years ago there 
used to be Washington societies, and little boys 
used to walk in processions, each little boy hav- 
ing a copy of the Address bound in red, hung 
round his neck by a ribbon." 

The paper prepared, Washington's carefully 
planned legacy to posterity, he was ready to lay 
down the power, civil and military, which had 
been his for almost a quarter of a century. He 
had outlived the day when the voice in his favor 
was practically unanimous. He wrote to Hamil- 
ton of his " disinclination to be longer buffeted in 
the public prints by a set of infamous Scribblers," 
but he had the good judgment to strike out of the 
Farewell Address a fierce attack on the said 
scribblers. A few days before his retirement the 
Aurora said: "If ever a nation was debauched by 
a man, the American nation has been debauched 
by Washington ; if ever a nation was deceived by 
a man, the American nation has been deceived 
by Washington." When he gave up office. 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 395 

an anonymous correspondent of the Aurora 
wrote : — 

"... The man who is the Source of all the misfor- 
tunes of our country is this day reduced to a level with 
his fellow-citizens, and is no longer possessed of power 
to multiply evils upon the United States. . . . Every 
heart in unison with the freedom and happiness of the 
people ought to beat high with exultation that the name 
of Washington from this day ceases to give a currency 
to political iniquity and legalized corruption. A new 
era is now opening upon us — an era which promises 
much to the people, for public measures must now stand 
upon their own merits, and nefarious profits can no 
longer be supported by a name. When a retrospect is 
taken of the Washington administration for eight years, 
it is a subject of the greatest astonishment that a single 
individual should have conquered the principles of repub- 
licanism in an enlightened people just emerged from the 
gulf of despotism, and should have carried his designs 
against the public liberty so far as to have put in jeop- 
ardy its very existence." 

For this article the publisher received a beat- 
ing, and found it necessary to disavow responsi- 
bility. The state legislatures, with one or two 
exceptions, responded cordially to the address. 
The change, however, in his position in the 
nation, was shown by the action of Virginia, 
which expressed respect and regret, but when his 
friends in the House of Delegates endeavored to 
ascribe to him "wisdom in the cabinet, valor in 
the field, and the purest patriotism in both," the 



396 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

amendment was lost, 74 to 6^. Of Washington's 
administration Fisher Ames said, " Though it 
has made many thousand malcontents, it has 
never, by its rigor or injustice, made one man 
wretched." Although the voices of the malcon- 
tents partly poisoned for Washington the praise 
of the majority, he believed that the future would 
see that his every effort had been for good, and 
when the final ceremony came, the outgoing 
President appeared to his successor to be "as 
serene and unclouded as the day." Adams 
seemed to hear the wearied general say, " Ay, I 
am fairly out and you fairly in ! See which of 
us will be happiest." 

The chamber of the House of Representa- 
tives, in which the ceremony took place, was 
filled with a multitude as great as it could hold, 
and as Adams looked about him he saw scarcely 
a dry eye but Washington's. The tears were 
not for him, the new official, nor was the interest. 
All thought, all affection was centred in the tall, 
gray-haired soldier, with the powerful frame and 
dignified face, who was saying a solemn fare- 
well to the nation whose first and greatest pilot 
he had been. A long time they had labored 
together, the people and their ruler, and many 
a time they had needed his restraining hand or 
his exhorting voice. The victory had been won, 
the foundations for a vast and happy state had 



THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION 397 

been laid. No more was possible for Washing- 
ton. He had done what one man could do. His 
hair was very gray, his chest had grown thin, and 
his form was slightly bent. It was time for him 
to step aside, and, like an old man, to wait for 
death. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE END 

"These swords are accompanied with an injunction not to un- 
sheath them for the purpose of shedding blood except it be for self- 
defence, or in defence of their Country and its rights, and in the 
latter case to keep them unsheathed, and prefer falling with them in 
their hands to the relinquishment thereof/' — Washington's Will. 

A FEW days after he laid down his power Wash- 
ington departed for Mount Vernon, the home 
which he loved. To the house he had added, 
during his presidency, a banqueting hall and a 
dining room, which there were always guests 
enough to use, in spite of the owner's fatigue and 
his dreams of rest. Much of each day, whatever 
his company, and, almost without exception, what- 
ever his health, was spent in the careful work 
with which a devoted farmer seeks to improve 
and increase the holdings which are the most 
quieting and satisfying part of life to him. The 
retired President's love of his lands, cattle, sheep, 
hogs, crops, filled his nature, soothed him, gave 
to his stalwart and sombre soul some of that 
serious but sufficient happiness which for so many 
centuries poet after poet, and common man after 
common man, have found in fidelity to Nature. 

398 



THE END 399 

" The remainder of my life, (which in the course of 
nature cannot be long,) will be occupied in rural amuse- 
ment; and, though I shall seclude myself as much as 
possible from the noisy and bustling crowd, none more 
than myself would be regaled by the company of those 
I esteem, at Mount Vernon ; more than twenty miles 
from which, after I arrive there, it is not likely I ever 
shall be." 

" To make and sell a little flour annually, to repair 
houses (going fast to ruin), to build one for the security 
of my papers of a public nature, and to amuse myself 
in agricultural and rural pursuits, will constitute employ- 
ment for the few years I have to remain on this terres- 
trial globe." 

" Retired from noise myself, and the responsibility 
attached to public employment, my hours will glide 
smoothly on. My best wishes, however, for the pros- 
perity of our country will always have the first place in 
my thoughts ; while to repair buildings, and to cultivate 
my farms, which require close attention, will occupy 
the few years, perhaps days, I may be a sojourner here, 
as I am now in the sixty-sixth year of my peregrination 
through life." 

One of the men who saw him near Alexandria 
was John Bernard, the actor. A chaise was 
overturned, near the banks of the Potomac, and 
a woman was thrown out. As Bernard ap- 
proached, a horseman, w^io had been proceeding 
at a gentle trot, broke into a gallop, reached the 
scene, and, with the actor's help, after much work, 
put the chaise right, the horse and baggage in. 
" My companion," says Bernard, in his " Retrospec- 



400 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

tions of America," "after an» exclamation at the 
heat, offered very courteously to dust my coat, a 
favor the return of which enabled me to take 
a deliberate survey of his person. He was a tall, 
erect, well-made man, evidently advanced in years, 
but who appeared to have retained all the vigor 
and elasticity resulting from a life of temperance 
and exercise. His dress was a blue coat but- 
toned to his chin, and buckskin breeches . . . 
the instant he took off his hat, I could not avoid 
the recognition of familiar lineaments, — which, 
indeed, I was in the habit of seeing on every sign- 
post and over every fireplace." 

Bernard, w^hom Washington had seen on the 
stage, was invited to the house. " Whether," he 
says, "you surveyed his face, open yet well de- 
fined, dignified but not arrogant, thoughtful but 
benign ; his frame, towering and muscular, but 
alert from its good proportion — every feature 
suggested a resemblance to the spirit it encased, 
and showed simplicity in alliance with the sub- 
lime. The impression, therefore, was that of a 
most perfect whole ; and though the effect of 
proportion is said to be to reduce the idea of 
magnitude, you could not but think you looked 
upon a wonder, and something sacred as w^ell as 
w^onderful." 

To one correspondent he said that he and Mrs. 
Washington had no disposition to enter into new 



THE END 401 

friendships. On November 12th, 1799, which was 
near the end, we find him dechning an invitation 
for himself and his wife on the ground that their 
dancing days are over; but the stream of visitors 
at his own house never lessened. " I mount my 
horse and ride round my farms, which employs 
me until it is time to dress for dinner, at which 
I rarely miss seeing strange faces, come, as they 
say, out of respect for me. Pray, would not the 
word curiosity answer as well ? " 

Before we take our final leave of this man, so 
homely in texture, so superb in achievement, we 
must follow him once more into the arena. It 
was probably impossible that he should keep 
wholly aloof from politics. President Adams, 
a few days after his inauguration, wrote to his 
wife : " All the Federalists seem to be afraid to 
approve anybody but Washington." Smarting 
under the overshadowing influence of his prede- 
cessor, feeling that the public could look to 
no other while Washington even lived, Adams 
grew restive. Years later, when he and the 
leader of the Republican party were philosophiz- 
ing away a serene old age, Adams, writing that 
the last eleven years of his life had been the most 
enjoyable, and that Jefferson also was happy in 
retirement, added : " I have had opportunity to 
know, however, that the illustrious Washington 
was not, and that to his uneasiness in retirement 



402 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

great changes in the politics of this country were 
to be attributed, perhaps for the better, possibly 
for the worse. God knows." 

The second President was not the only one 
who, soon after Washington's retirement, decided 
that the Mount Vernon farmer had not entirely 
closed his eyes to public affairs. Jefferson, refer- 
ring to the belief that Adams was likely to rush 
into a war with France, wrote to Madison : — 

" It is said, and there are circumstances which 
make me believe it, that the hot-headed proceed- 
ings of Mr. A. are not well relished in the cool 
climate of Mount Vernon . . . but if it has been 
expressed, it must have been within a very con- 
fidential circle." The Republicans circulated the 
story that Adams was about to marry a son to 
one of the king's daughters, or vice versa ; ^ that 
Washington, hearing of this, and other Anti-Re- 
publican practices of the President, called on him 
three times — first in white, then in black, finally 
in full regimentals — and, finding his successor 
still deaf to good counsel, drew his sword and 
declared that he would never sheath it until Mr. 
Adams had abandoned his wicked designs. This 
fable is an amusing impressionistic sign of the 
times, but the attitude of the Republicans is 
indicated more realistically in some words written 
by Madison to Jefferson, in i 798 : — 

1 Greydin's " Memoirs,"' p. 41 1. 



THE END • 403 

" The one, cool, considerate, and cautious ; the other, 
headlong, and kindled into flame by every spark that 
lights on his passions ; the one, ever scrutinizing into the 
public opinion, and ready to follow, where he could not 
lead it ; the other, insulting it by the most adverse sen- 
timents and pursuits. Washington, a hero in the field, 
yet overweighing every danger in the Cabinet ; Adams 
without a single pretension to the character of a soldier, 
a perfect Quixotte as a statesman. The former chief 
magistrate pursuing peace every where, with sincerity, 
though mistaking the means ; the latter taking as much 
means to get into war as the former took to keep out of 
it. The contrast might be pursued into a variety of 
other particulars — the policy of the one in shunning 
connections with the arrangements of Europe, of the 
other in holding out the United States as a make-weight 
in the Balances of power ; the avowed exultation of 
Wasl^ington in the progress of liberty every where, and 
his eulogy on the Revolution and people of France, pos- 
terior even to the bloody reign and fate of Robespierre ; 
the open denunciations by Adams of the smallest dis- 
turbance of the ancient discipline, order, and tranquillity 
of despotism, &c., &c., &c." 

In contrast with this description, Washing- 
ton's real views of the presumptions of the 
French Government are most entertainingly seen 
in his notes on the copy of Monroe's " Short 
View," already referred to, in which he treats so 
scathingly the future President of the United 
States and the intrigues of the Directory and 
Talleyrand. When there seemed to be actual 
danger of an invasion of the United States by 



404 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

France, Washington consented to take command 
of the armies, having had ample and correct 
warning, as usual, from Hamilton, that the public 
voice would in an emergency loudly call upon 
him. The two men, after their joint labors and 
their occasional quarrels, spent in harmony the 
last years of the older friend s life. Washington 
made it a condition of his acceptance that he 
should not be ca.lled into the field unless it was 
necessary. He insisted on the choice of his lead- 
ing generals, and displeased the President bitterly 
by his selection of Hamilton, " the most restless, 
impatient, artful, indefatigable, and unprincipled 
intriguer in the United States, if not in the world, 
to be second in command under himself," as it 
was vivaciously expressed by Adams, who yielded 
only because Washington insisted that he must 
either have a free hand or refuse the task. It 
was an extended and sharp trial of will between 
the two men, in which Adams gloomily yielded 
to necessity. For his choice of Fiamilton, Wash- 
ington gave clear reasons to the President : — 

" Although Colonel Hamilton has never acted in the 
character of a General Officer, yet his opportunities, as 
the principal and most confidential aid of the commander- 
in-chief, afforded him the means of viewing every thing 
on a larger scale than those, whose attentions were con- 
fined to Divisions or Brigades, who knew nothing of the 
correspondence of the commander-in-chief, or of the 



THE END 405 

various orders to, or transactions with, the General Staff 
of the Army." 

" By some he is considered as an ambitious man, and 
therefore a dangerous one. That he is ambitious, I shall 
readily grant, but it is of that laudable kind, which 
prompts a man to excel in whatever he takes in hand. 
He is enterprising, quick in his perceptions, and his 
judgment intuitively great ; qualities essential to a mili- 
tary character, and therefore I repeat, that his loss will 
be irreparable." 

A certain resemblance to later history may 
be traced in what Washington said about the 
applications for commissions. " The applications 
are made chiefly through members of Congress. 
These, oftentimes to get rid of them, oftener still 
perhaps for local & electioneering purposes, and 
to please & gratify their party, more than from 
any real merit in the applicant, are handed in, 
backed by a solitude for success in order to 
strengthen their interest." He wished the power 
in this crisis kept wholly in the hands of the 
Federal party, for he believed that " you could 
as soon scrub the blackamore white as to change 
the principle of a profest Democrat, and that he 
will leave nothing unattempted to overturn the 
Government of this Country." The war-cloud 
passed, however, and the retired commander was 
called upon for no active service. Nevertheless, 
as Adams was not popular, there were many sug- 
gestions that on the close of his term Washing- 



4o6 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

ton should resume the government. He sadly 
asserted his disbelief that he could draw a single 
Democratic vote, and his feelings toward his politi- 
cal opponents had become almost as intense as 
partisan feeling has become since, although the 
party system was then in its cradle. 

'* Let that party set up a broomstick, and call it a true 
son of liberty — a democrat — or give it any other epi- 
thet that will suit their purpose, and it will command 
their votes in totoT 

" If men, not principles, can influence the choice on 
the part of the Federalists, what but fluctuations are to 
be expected ? The favorite to-day may have the curtain 
dropped on him to-morrow, while steadiness marks the 
conduct of the Anti's ; and whoever is not on their side 
must expect to be loaded with all the calumny that malice 
can invent; in addition to which I should be charged 
with inconsistency, concealed ambition, dotage, and a 
thousand more et ceterasy 

*' I am too far advanced into the vale of life to bear 
such buffeting as I should meet with in such an event. 
A mind that has been constantly on the stretch since the 
year 1753, with but short intervals and little relaxation, 
requires rest and composure." 

Of rest and composure he was to have little 
more on this side the grave. For what it is worth 
we may take this letter from Mrs. Washington to 
a kinsman, dated September i8th, 1799, and cited 
by Lossing: — 

" At midsummer the General had a dream so deeply 
impressed on his mind that he could not shake it off for 



THE END 407 

several days. He dreamed that he and I were sitting in 
the summer-house, conversing upon the happy life we 
had spent, and looking forward to many more hours on 
the earth, when suddenly there was a great light all 
around us, and then an almost invisible figure of a sweet 
angel stood by my side and whispered in my ear. I sud- 
denly turned pale and then began to vanish from his 
sight, and he was left alone. I had just risen from the 
bed when he awoke and told me his dream, saying, 'You 
know a contrary result indicated by dreams may be ex- 
pected. I may soon leave you.' I tried to drive from 
his mind the sadness that had taken possession of it, by 
laughing at the absurdity of being disturbed by an idle 
dream, which, at the worst, indicated that I would not be 
taken from him ; but I could not, and it was not until 
after dinner that he recovered any cheerfulness. I found 
in the library, a few days afterwards, some scraps of 
paper which showed that he had been writing a Will, and 
had copied it." 

Whether or not Washington had this dream, 
his letter authentically reflect what he felt as he 
saw his friends and enemies rapidly dropping 
about him. 

"When I shall be called tipon to follow them, is known 
only to the Giver of Life. When the summons comes I 
shall endeavor to obey it with a good grace." 

" Against the effect of time and age no remedy has 
ever yet been discovered, and like the rest of my fellow- 
mortals I must (if life is prolonged) submit, and be rec- 
onciled, to a gradual decline." 

On Thursday, December 1 2th, 1 799, while riding 
about his farms, he was caught in a storm of rain, 



408 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

hail, and snow, and severely* chilled. He came 
home and went to bed. That journey, of some 
fifteen miles on horseback, made daily in the 
interests of crops and sheep and hogs, had been 
taken by the long-suffering, grave, and weary 
planter for the last time. As medical science 
was futile then, he was subjected to bleeding, and 
merely weakened. With the knowledge of to-day 
his life might have been spared until his fears 
had been realized about the decline of his powers. 
Devoted friends and relatives stood anxiously 
about his bed. They could do little for his bodily 
comfort, and moral strength he borrowed from 
no man. " Doctor," he said, " I die hard, but I 
am not afraid to go. I believed, from my first 
attack, that I should not survive it. My breath 
cannot last long." 

And again, " I feel myself going (I thank you 
for your attention) ; you had better not take any 
more trouble about me ; but let me go off quietly. 
I cannot last long." 

Faithful to his instinct to look every truth in 
the face, the dying statesman and warrior felt his 
own pulse. Is there a more fitting departure in 
history than this of Washington's, assuring his 
friends of his readiness, sparing them needless 
effort, and himself calmly feeling his ebbing life ? 
The man who had stood so much, who had 
ignored death on a hundred fields, from boyhood 



THE END 409 

to old age, treated it now with the serene attention 
of one strong enough to live and strong enough 
to die. Washington, dying almost with his hand 
upon his pulse, left us one of our noblest memo- 
ries of man, — a soul in whom the highest courage 
and the truest powers arose to meet the hardest 
human tests. He waited but a few moments 
longer for his release. His careful hand fell from 
his wrist, and immediately his eyes were closed 
forever. By his will he had freed his slaves and 
requested that no oration might be delivered at 
his funeral. 

Washino^ton's career " chano^ed the world's idea 
of greatness." It fixed into an ideal a transforma- 
tion in the spirit of mankind. No figure in mod- 
ern history compares with him as an influence 
toward public conscience. Because he lived as 
he did live, great men have purified their ambi- 
tions and millions of schoolboys have conceived 
of heroism as allied to virtue. He made ene- 
mies in his life, but he left none at his death. 
When he was once past and judged, his bitterest 
opponents became his eulogists. Jefferson, the 
leader of the opposition party, was disappointed 
when Napoleon became an autocrat, because he 
had hoped that Washington's fame would lead 
the French conqueror to emulate his devotion to 
liberty. From Jefferson to Jackson, from Calhoun 



4IO GEORGE WASHINGTON 

to our own day, the Democratic party has vied 
with Republicans, Whigs, and Federalists in hon- 
oring and obeying the President whose glory they 
all cherish. As his acts were for the good of 
all, so now his example is potent not in one 
faction or in one land, but among statesmen 
and humble citizens everywhere. On his words 
Daniel Webster founded his enlightening elo- 
quence. With his deeds Lincoln inspired him- 
self. To-day, in the heated questions of the 
hour, while we discuss problems unknown to the 
nation at her birth, among the most potent argu- 
ments are analosfies drawn from the conduct and 
doctrine of Washington. He has the enduring 
confidence of mankind. He won it by talents 
which were rare, but which were in no wise 
so great as the probit}' with which he used them. 
Had he died after his personal heroism in the 
wilderness we should seldom have heard of him. 
Had he died on his farm, in the middle of his 
life, his departure would have been like that 
of another. Had he been killed at Yorktown he 
would have been a srreat man, one who with manv 
gifts, much patience, and rare tact had seen the 
country- throuo;h the war in w*hich the colonies 
won their independence ; but even then his fame 
would have been not more than half complete. It 
was well that men should see how he laid down 
the sword and resumed the plough — well that 



THE END 411 

they should hear the severity of his reproaches 
when they offered him the crown, — but still 
better that their first struggle to reconcile con- 
flicting interests, and make of the states a nation, 
should be fought through under his firm and 
dominating eye. Had a corrupt man been the 
ruler, or a weak one ; or even had it been an 
able factional leader, a Hamilton at the head of 
one part}^ or a Jefferson in control of another, 
we can hardly think the Union would have been 
entirely safe, for it would not have rested on an 
equal care for the privileges of all. The tran- 
quillity, the general welfare, the liberty, for which 
the Constitution was formed, might have been 
won, — but they might have been lost ; and as- 
suredly under no other hand could the trans- 
formation have been made with such promptness, 
dignity, and completeness. If Washington's name 
is as great as any in the annals of political histor}^ 
it is because of deeds which the world values now 
even more than it did a hundred years ago. His 
was a noble nature, with a sanity, a balance, a 
power of endurance, seldom rivalled ; but his 
giory is not mainly personal. It is not primarily 
the effulgence of some rare and individual superi- 
ority. It is universal. It is the concentration in 
a man of those merits which are most needed 
in the rulers of mankind. It is the triumph of 
integrity, of patience, of courage, of loyalty, at 



412 GEORGE WASHINGTON 

the service of his country. It is because he was 
with constancy for the right, and so powerful in 
its service, that he has such honor from the world. 
Only great talents could have accomplished what 
Washington accomplished, but no genius alone, 
however prodigious, could fill that place in the 
world's history which is held by Washington's 
clearness of view and unbending moral strength. 



INDEX 



Abercrombie, General James, 73 

Adams, John, 112, note, 113, 120, 

121, 124, 125, 129, 132, 141, 

159, 176, 185, 194, 195, 196, 

198, 224, 234, 240, 265, 266, 



Bellamy, George Anne, 58 

Bernard, John, 399, 400 

Billy, Washington's servant, 214, 

235. 236 
Bland, Colonel Richard, 75, 112, 327 



268, 270, 271, 279, 285, 304, Boston Port Bill, the, 113 



325, 326, 330, 331, 332, 354, 
359, 360, 365, 367, 371, 372, 
373» 39 1 » 396, 401, 402, 403, 
404, 405 

Adams, John Quincy, 20, 375 

Adams, Mrs. John, 129 

Adams, Samuel, 144, 195, 196 

Addison's Spectator, 8, 12 

Alexander, Mr., 61 

Alexander the Great, 260 

Alfieri, 319 

Aliquippa, 29, 44 

Allen, Ethan, 118 

Ames, Fisher, 128, 321, 355, 378, 
396 

Amherst, Sir Jeffrey, 120 

Amory, " Life of Sullivan," 136, note 

Andre, Major, 241, 246, 247, 248, 
253 

Aristides, 194 

Armstrong, John, 76 

Arnold, General Benedict, 141, 173, 
207, 21 1, 217, 240, 241, 242, 243, 
244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 253, 259, 
260 

Arnold, Mrs. Benedict, 242, 243 

Aurora, the, 395 



Ball, John, 5 
Ball, Joseph, 70 
Balls, the, 5 



Boswell, 117, note 

Boucher, Rev. Jonathan, 119 

Bouquet, 86, 87 

Braddock, General, 2, 42, 56, 57, 58, 

59, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 

71, 72, 73, 78,80,85,86, 113 
Bradford, 380 
Brougham, Lord, 281, 371 
Bunker Hill, battle of, 122, 133, 

138, 144, 185 
Burgoyne, General, 189, 194, 195, 

197, 198, 203, 204, 205 
Burke, Edmund, 109, 115, 116, 149, 

267 
Burr, Aaron, 356 
Burrass, 82 
Byron, 125 



Cadwalader, General, 171 
Calhoun, 409 

Campbell, Dr. John, 117, note 
Campbell, Lieutenant Colonel, 176 
"Captam Molly," 215 
Carlisle, Lord, 221, 222 
Carlyle, Mrs. John, 43 
Carrington, Edward, 319 
Chandler, Lieutenant, 135 
Chastellux, Chevalier, 262, 294 
Chateaubriand, 358, 359 
Chatham, 115, 116, 119, 202, 203 
Cherokees, the, 80 

413 



414 



INDEX 



Chew, Joseph, 77, 78 
Child, Joseph, 150 
Clinton, General, Sir Henry, 216, 
217, 232, 238, 248, 249, 259, 

260, 262, 263 
Cobb, Colonel, 264 
Coke, Rev. Thomas, 302 
Colonial Dames, the, 43, note 
Concord, battle of, 115, 118 
Congress, 2, 70, 145, 146, 147, 149, 

150, 151, 152, 153, 157, 160, 
161, 164, 167, 168, 175, 176, 
177, 180, 181, 183, 184, 185, 
186, 190, 197, 199, 200, 201, 
203, 204, 206, 208, 216, 220, 
224, 226, 227, 228, 231, 232, 
233, 237, 240, 241, 248, 272, 
276, 278, 280, 281, 320, 360, 
370. 388 
"Conotocarius," t^'}* ■ 
Constitutional Convention, the, 305, 

306 
Continental Congress, the, 112, 117, 

118, 122, 123, 131, 139, 140 
Contrecourt, 39 

Conway cabal, the, 195, 196, 203 
Conway, Major General, 176, 196, 

199, 200 
Conway, Moncure D., 118, note 
Conway's " Life of Paine," 293, note 
Corbin, Richard, letter from, 32 
Cornwallis, Lord, 165, 188, 259, 260, 

261, 263, 264, 265, 266 
Craik, Dr., 212, 213, 291 
Custis, Daniel Parke, 90, 129 
Custis, Eleanor, 99 

Custis, G. W. P., 186, 208, 72ote, 213, 
note, 214, note, 234, note, 266, 
269, 7iote 

Custis, John Parke, 105 

Custis, Martha, 85, 86, 88, 89. See 
Washington, Martha 

Custis, Patsy, 10 1, 104 

Dartmouth, Lord, 140 



Davidsofi, John, 18, 22 

Davies, Rev. Samuel, 70 

Deane, Silas, 113 

Declaration of Independence, 182 

Delawares, the, 44, 45, 46 

Depevv, Chauncey M., 98 jtote 

D'Estaing, Count, 218, 221 

Dewey, Admiral, 300 

Dick, Mr., 62 

Dinwiddle, Governor, 17, 33, 34, 35, 

40, 41, 44, 50, 53, 54, 68, 72, 

73, 74, 80, 82, 83 
Dryden, 129 
Dulany, Mr., 97 
Dumas, Count, 66, 79, 279 
Dyer, E., 195 

Erskine, 127 
Evans, Rev. INIr., 264 
Everett, Edward, 312 
Ewing, General, 170 

Fairfax, Bryan, 11 1 

Fairfax, Colonel William, 44, 53, 61, 

69, 71 
Fairfax family, the, 5, 6, 7, 13, lOO, 

108, 288 
Fairfax, Mrs. George William, 86 
Fairfax, Sally, 69 
Fairfax, Thomas, 7, 8, 265 
Falmouth, burning of, 142 
Fauchet, 381 
Fauntleroy, William, 15 
Federalist, the, 315 
Fitch, Colonel, 113 
Fitzhugh, Colonel, 55 
Folsom, Nathaniel, 195 
Forbes, General John, 83, 87, 88 
Ford house, the, 234 
Ford, Judge, 234, 7iote 
Ford, Mrs., 234, 235 
Ford, Worthington C, 256 
Fort Cumberland, 61, 68, 79, 85 
Fort Duquesne, 39, 47, 49, 53, 63, 

64, 70, 79, ^i 



INDEX 



415 



Fort Necessity, 46, 68 

Fort Ticonderoga, 118 

Fort Washington, 162, 163 

Fox, 116, 154, 267 

Franklin, Benjamin, 3, 31, 57, 58, 
61, 75, 8s, III, 115, 116, 
119, 150, 185, 202, 234, 256, 
268, 270, 271, 286, 304, 306, 

307, 3io> 31 1» 3^9, 329» 330, 

368 
Frazer, John, 21, 28 
Frederick the Great, 114, 172 
Frenau, PhiHp, 377 
French, Mr., 103 
Fry, Colonel, 35, 42, 44 

Gage, General, 64, 108, 115, 133, 

138, 143 
Gaines' Mercu}-}', 177 
Gallatin, Albert, 292 
Gates, General, 148, 161, 164, 189, 

190, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 

199, 200, 240, 259, 274 
Genet, 372 

George Barnwell, the play of, 14 
George's Creek, 63 
Gerard, 219, 220 
Germaine, Lord George, 157, 165, 

232, 266 
Gerry, Elbridge, 121, 195, 311 
Gibbon, 202 
Gilbert, W. S., 231 
Gist, Christopher, 18, 22, 23, 25, 26, 

27. 28, 35, 47, 60 
Glstdstone, 98 
Glover, Colonel, 136 
Gordon, William, 284 
Grasse, Count de, 262 
Green, Rev. Mr., 61 
Greene, General, 152, 154, 156, 164, 

165, 175, 186, 187, 207, 217, 

227, 233, 235, 247, 259, 263, 

276, 289 
Greydin's " Memoirs," 402, note 
Guizot, 132 



"Half-King," the, 18, 19, 20, 21, 
22, 23, 24, 25, 32, 34, 35, 36, 
37,40,44,46, 51, 52 

Hamilton, Alexander, 158, 196, 207, 
209, 211, 214, 217, 219, 234, 
242, 243, 244, 246, 248, 249, 
250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 256, 
264, 272, 273, 274, 276, 278, 
279, 305. 307, 308, 309, 311, 
312, 315, 317, 337, 354, 355, 
356, 357' 359, 360, 362, 369, 
373, 374, 375, 380, 384, 387, 
389, 39 1 » 392, 393» 394, 404, 
411 

Hamilton collection, the, 78, note 

Hamilton's " History of the Repub- 
lic," 158, note 

Hamilton, S. M., 43, note 

Hancock, President of Congress, 146, 
152, 172, 175, 220 

Harrison, Benjamin, 112, 225, 278, 
289, 299, 319 

Harrison, Mrs. Burton, in, note 

Heath, General, 155, 158, 162, 172 

Henry, Patrick, 112, 113, 117, 118, 
125, 144, 177, 198, 300, 312, 
3x3,314,325, 369,385,387 

Holroyd, 202 

How, David, his diary, 135, note 

Howe, General, 138, 139, 140, 145, 
151, 153, 162, 163, 164, 165, 
168, 178, 185, 186, 188, 190, 
193, 201, 217 

Howe, William, 185 

Howell, David, 293 

Howes, the, 176, 185 

Hume, David, 143 

Humphreys, Colonel, 290, 320, 324 

Hunt, Colonel, 150 

Hutchinson, Dr., 372 

Innes, General, 61 

Irving, Washington, 158, 292 

Jackson, Andrew, 409 



4i6 



INDEX 



Jackson, Robert, 6 
Jay, John, 152, 226, 234, 284, 304, 
305, 312, 315, 324, 365, 373, 

374, 375, 389, 392 
Jefferson, Thomas, 90, 1 11, 117, 127, 
128, 149, 150, 226, 234, 256, 
262, 263, 285, 289, 299, 303, 
310, 316, 319, 326, 330, 331, 

33,1> 355, 356, 357, 359, 360, 
361, 365, 366, 368, 372, 376, 
377, 381, 385, 387, 388, 389, 
400, 401, 402, 409, 411 
Jenkins, 79 
"Jeskakake," 21 
Johnson, Colonel, 237 
Johnson, Dr., 95, 116, 117, 246 
Joncaire, Captain de, 21, 22, 25 
Jones, Paul, 319 
Jones, the Tory historian, 319 
Jumonville, Coulon de, 36, 39, 40, 50 

King George III., 114, 116, 138, 141, 

146, 147, 149, 202, 208, 270 
King, Rufus, 389 
King William, 169 
Knox, General, 243, 262, 263, 265, 

273» 299, 300, 305,320, 337, 355 
Knox, Mrs., 235 
"Kustaloga," 22 

Lafayette, 150, 182, 183, 184, 187, 
196, 197, 200, 207, 208, 211, 
213, 216, 219, 221, 222, 223, 
236, 243, 250, 253, 254, 258, 
260, 261, 264, 266, 270, 282, 
298, 301, 304, 310, 358 

La Force, 41 

Lamb, Charles, 247 

Langdon, James, 312 

Laurens, Henry, 198 

Laurens, John, 200, 201, 211, 214, 
note, 216, 244, 266 

Laurie, Dr., 103 

Lawrence, Captain, 18 

Lear, Colonel, 334, 335, 336 



Lecky, W. E. H., 126 

Lee,* Colonel Henry, 174, 238, 245, 

260, 292, 293, 318 
Lee, Francis "Lightfoot," 196 
Lee, General Charles, 129, 141, 145, 

148, 161, 162, 164, 165, 176, 

185, 196, 207, 208, 213, 214, 

218 
Lee, Richard Henry, 112, 113, 133, 

196, 199, 259 
Lexington, battle of, 1 15, 1 18 
Lincoln, Abraham, 3, 410 
Lincoln, Gen,, 263 
Long Island, battle of, 155 
Lossing, 406 
Lossing and Custis, " Field Book of 

the Revolution," 234, note 
Loudoun, Lord, 83, 86 
Louis Philippe, 98 
Lowell, J. R., 256, 374 

McCarty, Captain, 61 
Mackaye, Captain, 46, 47, 49, 50 
Mackintosh, Sir James, 281 
Maclay, Senator, 325, 330, 359, 360 
Madison, James, 273, 275, 285, 286, 
289, 298, 299, 302, 304, 307, 312, 

z^z, 315, 324, 326, 356, 363, 364, 

368, 376, 377, 385, 387, 390, 392, 
402 

Magaw, Colonel, 163 

Marchant, Henry, 195 

Marshall, Chief Justice, 215, 312, 376 

Mason, George, 108, 109, 311, 314 

Mercer, Captain George, 78 

Mifflin, Thomas, 196, 197, 200, 240, 
281 

Mirabeau, 150, 258 

Monmouth, battle of, 208, 215, 216, 
218 

Monroe, James, 314, 370, 377, 385, 
387, 388, 403 

Montour, Andrew, 73, 74 

Moore, " Diary of American Revo- 
lution," 151, note 



INDEX 



417 



Morgan, General Daniel, 136, 197, 

201, 208. 209, 210, 211 
Morris, Gouverneur, 224, 262, 308, 

309. 3^0,311, 360, 367, 368, 371 

Morris, Robert, 156, 166, 172, 176, 
I79» 293, 308, 309 

Morris, Roger, 77, 78 

Mossum, Rev. Peter, 90 

Mouceau, 39, 40 

Moultrie, General, 262 

Mount Vernon, 3, 5, 8, 13, 15, 56, 
57, 62, 69, 83, 88, 91, 98, 107, 
112, 126, 265, 286, 292, 304, 
320, 327, 361, 374, 397, 398, 
402 

Muse, Major, 51, 54, 94 

Napoleon, 183, 409 

National Gazette, the, 376 

Nelson, Admiral, 256 

New York Gazette, 177 

North, Lord, 116, 138, 143, 147, 

202, 206, 221, 266, 267 
Northley, Mr., 324 

Odell, Jonathan, 228 
Ohio Company, the, 18, 30 
Orme, Robert, 64 
Otis, James, 119 

Paine, Thomas, 142, 149, 169, 196, 

358, 368 
Palfrey, Colonel, 190 
Parker, Theodore, 88 
Parkinson, Richard, 96 
Parkman, 38 
Parton, 6 
Pearis, Mr., 79 
Pelham, Sir Thomas, 72 
Pendleton, Colonel, 112, 131, 367 
Philipse, Miss Mary, 76, 77 
Phillips, Wendell, 95 
Pickering, 127, 186, 189, 190, 233, 

357» 370. 375» 378, 379. 380, 381, 
382 



Pitt, William, 83, 388 

Polybius, 260 

Pompey, Washington's servant, 136 

Pope, 141 

Price, Dr., 367 

Priestly, Dr., 367, 368 

Putnam, Israel, 172 

Quincy, Josiah, 7 

Randolph, Edmund, 108, 227, 311, 

yi^^ 379> 380, 381, 382, 383, 

384, 385, 387 
Randolph, John, 355 
Randolph, Peyton, 112, 382, 383 
Reed, Joseph, 135, 142, 160, 164, 

172, 200, 217,218, 233 
Remond, Charles, 95 
Rivington'' s Gazette, 247 
Robertson, no, 143 
Robespierre, 402 
Rochambeau, 236, 244, 258, 262, 

263 
Romilly, 248 

Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 195, 198, 334 
Rutledge, Mr., 114 

St. Clair, General, 334, 335, 336 

Sandvi'ich, Lord, 116, 132 

Schuyler, General, 131, 227, 249 

Scott, General, 207 

Sergeant, Jonathan Dickinson, 372 

Seven Years' War, the, 38 

Seward, Anne, 246 

Sharpe, Governor, 55 

Shelley, 282 

Shingiss, "King of the Delawares," 

18 
Simcoe, 261 
Smith, Goldwin, 128 
SmytJi's Journal, 248, 249 
South ey, 141 
Sparks, 14, note, 43, note, 65, 78, note, 

94, 131, 256 
Stanshury, 260 



4i8 



INDEX 



Stephen, Captain, 32, 33, 37, 49, 50, 

75, 82, 176 
Stephens, Richard, 103, 104 
Sterling, Lord, 153, 200 
Stetson, Christopher, 150 
Steuben, Baron, 182, 212, 231 
Stobo, Captain, 51 
Stoddert, B., 323 
Strahan, 119 
Stuart, David, 324, 332 
Sullivan, General, 136, 148, 154,200, 

366 

Talleyrand, Prince, 182, 360, 403 

Tarleton, Colonel, 259, 261, 266 

Thackeray, Rev. Francis, 58 

Thackeray, W. M., 4 

Thatcher, James, 156, 158, 235, 264 

Thomson, 320 

Thucydides, 115 

Tilghman, Tench, 156, 158, 159, 178, 

250, 289 
Trent, Captain William, 31, 32, 3;^ 
Trumbull, Governor, 268 
Trumbull, John, 328, 354 
Tryon, Governor, 157 
Tudor, 200 

Valley Forge, 193, 194, 206, 208, 

215, 216 
Vanbraam, Jacob, 18, 32, 42, 48, 49, 

50'5i 
Van Buren, Martin, 308, 359, 360 
Vergennes, 219, 271 
Villiers, 49, 50 
Virginia Assembly, the, 84, 108, III, 

112 

Voltaire, 38, 169, 206 

Wadsworth, 304 
Waldo, Dr., 191 
Walpole, Horace, 42, 5 1 
Warren, James, 121 
Washington, George : 
his place in history, I 



aifcestry, 2, 3, 4 

birth, 5 

childhood and early training, 6-12 

early pursuits, 13 

trip to the Barbadoes, 1 3- 1 5 

first appointment from Governor 
Dinwiddie, 17, 18 

experiences with the Indians, 19-29 

his first command, 30-37 

the opening of the Seven Years' 
War, 38-52 

aide-de-camp to Braddock, 56, 57 

the character of his mother, 62, 63 

P^ort Duquesne, 64, 65 

Braddock's defeat, 67, 68 

Washington returns to Mt. Ver- 
non, 69 

Colonel of Virginia's troops, 71-75 

visit to Philadelphia, New York, 
and Boston, 75-78 

Indian warfare, 79-82 

ill at Mt. Vernon, 83 

elected to the Virginia Assembly, 
84 

return to the front, 85 

his marriage to Mrs. Custis, 89, 90 

years of calm, 91-106 

the political crisis, 107, 108 

Washington's views, 109, no. III 

the first Continental Congress, 112, 

113 

open rebellion, 1 16-123 
commander-in-chief, 124 
estimates of his character, 125, 

126, 127 
incidents of camp life, 128-138 
the siege of Boston, 139, 140 
follows the enemy to New York, 

144 
the campaign about New York, 

145-156 
Harlem Heights, 157, 158 
the move toward the Delaware, 165 
crossing the river, 169, 170 
the Trenton campaign, 171, 172 



INDEX 



419 



dissatisfaction with his command, 

173-181 
the make-up of the army, 181 
Steuben and Lafayette, 182, 183 
the retreat at Brandy wine, 184 
Burgoyne's defeat, 189 
Valley Forge, 192, 193 
the long winter, 194-21 1 
the battle of Monmouth, 212, 213- 

219 
trouble in Congress, 226-234 
{^tony Point and Paulus Hook, 237 
Arnold's betrayal, 241-257 
the attack on Cornwallis, 264-265 
in retirement at Mt. Vernon, 283- 

303 
the society of the Cincinnati, 303- 

305 
plans for the country, 307-311 

the Constitution, 311-316 

acceptance of the presidency, 320 

the first Cabinet, 321-326 

office-seekers, 331 

no|tes on ofificers, 338-353 

the influence of Hamilton, 354-356 

the second administration, 366 

Jay's treaty, 373-379 

trouble with Randolph, 379-385 

the Whiskey Rebellion, 387 

the Farewell Address, 391-395 

his duty done, 396 

the return to Mt. Vernon, 398 

the final days, 406-408 



Washington's lasting influence, 
408-412 
Washington, John, 4 
Washington, John Augustine, 68, 

164, 289, 297 
Washington, Lawrence, 4, 5, 6, 7, 

13. 14, 15 
Washington, Lund, 134, 161, 254, 

255, 276 
Washington, Mrs. George (Martha 

Custis), 91, 95, 112, 190, 235, 

248, 287, 288, 290, 293, 326, 

335 » 367> 400, 406 
Waters, 82 
Watts, John, 354 
Wayne, General, 186, 207, 211, 230, 

237 
Webster, Daniel, 3, 322, 389, 410 
Wedderburn, Mr., 129 
Weems, 33, 291 
Whiskey Rebellion, the, 387 
" White House," the home of Martha 

Custis, 89, 91 
"White Thunder," 21 
Williams, Washington's tutor, 7 
WilHams, William, 195 
Wolcott, Roger, 378, 380 
Wolfe, General, 51 
Wooster, General, 331 
Wraxall, 266 

Young, Arthur, 288 



THE STAGE IN AMERICA 

1 897- 1 900 

By NORMAN HAPGOOD 

Author of " Abraham Lincoln : The Man of the People^'' etc. 

Cloth. Crown Octavo. $1.75 

A work of great interest to every one concerned in the welfare of 
dramatic art and literature 



SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS 



Introduction. 

IHAPTER 

i. The Syndicate. The Forma- 
tion of the Theatrical Trust 
and its Widespread Influ- 
ence. 

II. The Drama of Ideas. 

III. Our Two Ablest Dramatists, 

James A. Heme, WilUam 
Gillette. 

IV. Fatal Endings. Mainly a criti- 

cism of recent American 
plays, including Fitch's Na- 
than Hale and Barbara 
Frietchie. 
V. Broad American Humor. — 
May Irwin, Weber and 
Fields, etc. 
VI. The Drama and the Novel. 
The novels of Dumas, Stev- 
enson, Dickens, and Thack- 
eray in dramatic form. 
VII. Our only High-class Theatre, 
the Irving Palace Theatre, 
of New York. 



CHAPTER 

VIII. Recent Shakespeare : Com- 
edy. Revivals of As You 
Like It, llie Merchant of 
Venice. 

IX. Recent Shakespeare : Trag- 
edy. Revivals of Henry V, 
Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet. 

X. Ibsen. Presentations of the 
Ibsen Dramas in America. 

XL Foreign Tragedy: Ftihrmann 
Henschel, Die Versunkene 
Glocke. 

XII. Goethe, Schiller, Lessing. 

XIII. Rostrand. HAiglon and Cy- 

rano de Bergerac. 

XIV. Pinero, Shaw, and Jones. 
XV. Other British Importations. 

XVI. From the French. 

XVII. Histrionic and Literary Side- 
shows. 

Index. 



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